Sunshine
by Kilalaru22
Summary: A fun story I started out of boredom one week. Takes place right before Mass effect 2 and beyond between Fem. Shep and Garrus. Thank you for reading! First fan fiction so I hope you enjoy!
1. Chapter 1

~_"Mom! Noo!" I scream. My mother had just started to plant her new flowers around our outside patio. I'd been sitting in the livingroom hovering an apple in the air with my biotics since I was bored. My mom had turned and smiled, waving for me to join her. I looked at her like she was crazy, then a bullet passed through her head with cold precision._

_My father who had been in the kitchen turned in alarm and immediately grabbed me. We ran to where the guns were stashed, in the crawl-space under the stair. I grabbed my sniper rifle and slid the strap onto my shoulder while grasping the handgun and frantically loading it._

_"Dad, who is it?! What's happening? Why would they shoot mom?" I ask while my father and I get our guns loaded._

_"It looks like batarians, probably slavers. I'm going to get your sister. I need you to promise me you will run out the back and away from here and not look back. The Alliance needs to know about what's happening. You know how to use the communication device. We're all counting on you to get that S.O.S out, Ok?"_

_"No Dad! I can't leave you here while they're coming. I can hold them off.." He grabs her arm and shoves her in the direction of the backyard._

_"Hunny, my sunshine, I love you. I promise I'll be right behind you. Now go!" I'm halfway through the backdoor and I look back one more time. _

_"I love you sweety! I'll see you in a minute." He smiles lopsided, tears in his eyes, and runs up the stairs._

_I sprint through the yard and out into the small expanse of green grass before I get to some high brush. I'm about to disappear into the dense, green leaves when I hear a yell that sounds like my father before one gunshot and after a split second another follows, then silence. I stop in my tracks and listen. Nothing._

_I turn to go back and a batarian comes slowly out the back door. _No! He can't be dead! Nooo! _In my anguish and anger I use my biotics to grasp the batarian's neck tightly, breaking it. With the batarians strangled cry I snap back to myself and realize: I killed him. I start running away from the sight of the broken batarian with tears streaming down my face. "Papa, no no no, oh god what have I done..."_

Jasmin jerks upright in her bed gasping. Biotics rippling all around her dissapating as tears are making paths down her face. She realizes she's in her own bed, safe and places her hands on her face. _Why can't she stop reliving that nightmare?_ Frustrated, she jumps out of bed to grab a glass of water. She sips slowly while staring out the window, lost in thought. She's snapped out of her dark thoughts at the sudden chime of her doorbell.

Her mind still clouded from her dream, and without thinking who it could be, she opens the door. It's Tali, Liara, Garrus, and Wrex standing at her door in different stages of embarrassment. She had opened her door in her underwear and a leave-nothing-to-the-imagination pink silk tank top.

"Oh hey, what's goin on? Is it time already?" She asks, wondering why Liara has a smirk on her face and Garrus, along with Wrex, are staring in any direction but her own.

"What's wrong? Do I have something on my..." she looks down and her face turns a lovely shade of red. "Shit! Urgh!" She runs away to her room trying to cover her butt with her hands muttering "crap crap crap crap"

"Wow Shepard, a thong? I never knew" Liara yells after her as they settle into the living room.

"We didn't see a thing Shepard!" Tali follows up.

"Ya not too much, is that even considered a piece of clothing?" Wrex asks, then is cuffed by Tali. "What!?" he whines, rubbing his head while Garrus chuckles then coughs into his hand to disguise it. They all make themselves comfortable in Shepard's livingroom, sinking into chairs.

"I'll be right there guys!" They keep seeing her running between her bedroom and the bathroom. After another five minutes she comes out with her backpack slung over her shoulder wearing some gray leggings, a white tank top, white, black and gray cropped jacket, some black combat boots and to complete it all a black gun belt with her handgun holstered. Her long dirty blond hair is loose, straight, and parted to the right with a angled bang.

"Ok, ready to go? Sorry, I was a little...preoccupied this morning" she says as her blue eyes clouded over remembering her dream.

"It's quite alright Shepard. Besides it was treat enough how we were greeted at the door." Liara says, elbowing Garrus and smirking. "Now its time for some sun and fun. Well, artificial sun, but the fun will most definitely be real." Liara says with a wink.

"I have the food!" Tali announces holding up a very picnic-like container.

"And I have the fun." Jasmin says patting her backpack. "We'll be playing one of my favorite games today, flag football." She says with her cerulean blue eyes full of mischief.

"Hmm, if I recall its quite competitive though casual." Tali says thoughtfully.

"Finally something I call fun." Wrex says while he punchs his fists together with excitement.

"Ok lets get this party rockin'!" Jasmin says, gestering them out the door. She waits till Garrus files out and steps into pace with him, locking the door.

She hooks her arm through his and smiles warmly at him. "Care to accompany a girl you big sexy turian?" she says with a hearty wink.

"Sure thing Commander, as the most handsome one here I think I can handle escorting the most sought after arm candy on the citadel" he says with exaggerated chivalry and cockiness.

"Ho ho ho big shot! Better watch that ego, its becoming a monstrosity" she says laughing loudly.

Shepard looks to make sure everyone is otherwise occupied with eachother. "So have you reapplied to Spectre training?" she asks in a low voice with eager anticipation.

"Well, yes I have, thanks to a certain Commanders "gentle nudge". Thank you again Shepard..I..just..thanks" he says as he squeezes her hand while giving a lopsided turian smile.

She cuffs his chin "Anything for my Gar Gar" she says batting her eye lashes rapidly then giggling.

"Oh no, you did not just make up that rediculous nickname for me! Ugh!" he says with mock exasperation. "Seriously though, can't you come up with something a little more...I don't know..masculine? Like Badass, or Oh Handsome One?"

"Hah! as if! Ok fine I'll come up with something more to your liking. Gimme till the end of the day ok space rooster?" in a more serious voice she continues "I am very proud of you Mr. Garrus Vakarian. Someone's gotta join me at the top" she says smirking then hugging his arm closer.

They arrive at the elevator and punch the button to call it. "So what is this game about Shepard?" Wrex asks.

"Well do you remember when Kaiden had you guys watch human football on the projector for your "Guys night"? Well its like that, but no tackling. You have to grab a flag off of a belt from the person who's got the ball instead."

"Aww no tackling?"

"No Wrex, you're such a beast that you'd be breaking bones before we know it, silly krogan."

"Ok, fair enough." he says with an wry grin. "Well this is going to be interesting even without tackling" he said with an evil glint in his eyes.

"Hah, you think you're going to win? Bring it on tough guy!" Jasmin says beckoning him with a challenge.

"It's on!" Tali cheers just as the elevator dings and they all look at the elevator with disgust. It was empty, but not big enough to comfortably fit them all.

Shepard chuckles "Ok we got this. Wrex you go in first, umm Liara, Tali, and Garrus next..hmm..I guess I'll levitate myself above your heads if you guys are ok with that."

Everyone files in and Shepard looks at Garrus with mischief in her eyes. She takes a running jump and fakes like she's jumping on him, but levitates herself with her biotics instead. "Psych!" Liara and Tali start giggling as everyone is jostled against eachother. Wrex starts to grumble. Garrus makes the mistake of looking up at Shepard. Her hair is hanging down almost in his face as she starts making hilarious faces at him.

Garrus can't stop it, he doubles over in laughter. "With curiosity: Is something wrong with my face?" Shepard asks in a super exaggerated monotone elcor voice.

Before she was even done speaking everyone in the elevator was laughing uncontrollably.

As the elevator arrives they burst out of the doors laughing so hard they can't breath.

They finally catch their breathes after about a minute. "Garrus thanks for egging Shepard on." Tali says with mock annoyance.

"Hah! like you weren't busting at the seams laughing just a minute ago" he says accusingly while starting to laugh again. "Nice one Commander, the elcor voice was very good. You sure you weren't one in a past life?"

"Oh ha ha Garrus, being this funny requires skill." she laughs. "Alright ladies and gents, time for some fun!" as she starts to march forward.

"After you Commander" Garrus says with a bow and takes her arm again.

"Psst" Shepard gestures for Garrus to come close. "You can call me Shepard ya know?" she says winking, then taking his arm with exaggerated decorim.

"Oh Space-Ape isn't your real name?" he says mockingly.

"Ugh as if you Velociraptor!" she says with mock disgust, smiling all the while.

They arrive at the grassy park and gather together in a huddle. "Alright ladies and gents! Let's work up our appetites before lunch. Wrex, Liara, and Tali you guys make up team one. Being quick is the key and Wrex isn't the most agile so you ladies help him out. Team two is me and Garrus. We have the advantage here so we will have the handi-cap."

"What a surprise, you'd think they were attached at the hip" grumbles Wrex. Liara and Tali giggle quietly.

"Do I need to come over there Wrex? 'Cause I'm ready to show you how I beat you, all over again?" Shepard says with a wicked grin.

"Urm.." Wrex turns to walk away all you can here is some grumbling and something about a shotgun and Shepard's ass.

Shepard hands out the belts with the yellow flags attached to Tali. "Ok attach these to your waists. Here Garrus I got one expecially for your wispy waist." She said as she dangled it from her index finger and holds it out to Garrus.

Garrus hears Wrex's guffaws from across the field and rubs the back of his head, quickly grabbing the belt. "Wow, thanks for thinking of me. Next time along with whispy waist mention my dashing looks ok? A guy has to maintain a rep ya know."

Shepard smiles wickedly "Only if you mention how badass _I_ am whenever I enter a room."

Shepard turns outward, yelling to team one "Ok you can tell who's on your team from the colors. Team One is yellow and Team Two is red. That tree and that bush over there will be the touchdown zones. Now pair off and lets do this!"

Shepard pries off her boots and throws them off to the side. Everyone pairs off into teams and starts to stretch. Liara and Tali do some side bends, Wrex just rolls his shoulders, Garrus stretches what would be his triceps, and Shepard smiles with content, bending forward to stretch her back and thighs. "Mmm I love stretching! This feels sooo good" she purr's, flexing her hips a little.

Garrus stares for a second "How is it you can bend in half like that? My joints are cringing just looking at you" he shivers.

"Are you staring at my ass Garrus? Sexual harrassment!" she yells as Garrus facepalms. "Hey don't look at me like that, you walked right into that smoothtalker."

She straightens up and walks over. "Ok Garrus, lemme show you some plays we can do" she walks up close next to him while they both look at her omnitool while she acts out moves "Now, I'll pump fake and run to the left while you run down to the right. I'll throw you the ball and you run for the touchdown. Just try to be fast and not look too obvious. They'll never see us coming. You and I can do anything when I've got you on my six. Let's do this!" She turns and holds her fist out and Garrus bumps it with his own and they stretch out there fingers like an explosion.

"Shepard! Are you ready to get wiped across the field?" Wrex taunts them across the field.

"Anytime anywhere Wrex! Bring it!" Shepards taunts back.

"You don't stand a chance Wrex" Garrus drawls lazingly rolling his neck like its the easiest thing he'll ever do. He winks at Shepard and her smile just glows.

"Positions, and let's get started" Jasmin says with a competitive edge to her voice.

Garrus hikes the ball to Shepard and he lazily runs to the right side of the field. Liara follows him closely. Shepard pumps, fakes, then sprints down the field. Garrus can't believe how fast and graceful she is. He runs to get into position, Liara can barely keep up with him. He waits for it and Shepard sees an opening, throws the ball to Garrus while she gets almost tackled down by Tali. He nimbly catches the ball and picks up his pace. He sees Wrex come out of nowhere, diving to grab his flag. Garrus nimbly leaps over him and sprints to make a touchdown. He pumps his arms in victory while holding the ball.

"Wow Shepard this is a lot of fun! Haha I got the slip on you Wrex buddy. Sorrrry, better luck next time."

Shepard and Garrus proceed to tare up the field. Tali and Wrex get a touchdown each, but Shepard get's the winning touchdown. She starts to do the running man on the touchdown line. "Ya, thats right we're the champions" she says laughing loudly and twirling around.

She runs over to Garrus and slaps a high five/three and slaps his butt. "Woh Shepard, be nice to the goods. I've gotten many the lady with those."

"Ha, I can see why" she says as she glances at it for a second. "Tight."

"I didn't think turians were your thing Commander?" he askes teasingly.

"Hmm, well with a butt like that how could I resist? Now come on, it's lunch time!" she exclaims Garrus by his hand to the picnic.

"Yay! Time for lunch. I am starving!" she runs toward the picnic container and flops down stripping off her jacket. "Ugh I'm so warm." she says fanning herself.

"Too bad you don't have an air cooling unit like me Shepard" Tali says with amusement.

Tali passed out all the food to everyone and they started to eat hungrily. Tali sipping something through a straw while everyone was eating with surprised looks on their faces.

"Tali this is great, where'd you learn to cook like this?" Liara asks through mouthfuls.

"I researched a bit and Shepard helped me a little"

"Ya I learned to cook from my Dad, he was a great cook. He made the best apple pie ever. I was too little to cut up the apples so I would roll out the dough" she smiles with remembering. The dream was still too vivid in her mind though. "I miss him" She still missed him so much after all these years. Her eyes were getting a little misty, so she falls back onto the grass, her hair fanning out around her, and gazes into the fake blue sky above. They all look at her with concern for a minute. They don't know a lot, but they know something horrible happened to her and her parents involving batarian slavers. She never told them much more.

"Well this is damn good, thank you" Wrex grunts to break off the silence.

"What did you use in this dish Tali?" Liara asks and everyone gets into the conversation, letting Shepard have a moment.

Garrus gets up and lies down next to her, placing his talons behind his fringe, gazing at the blue sky with her.

"You ok Shepard?" he says, turning his head to look at her, searching her face.

She turns her head and looks at him for a minute with a small sad frown, then it broadens into a small smile. "I'm fine now, thanks Garrus. I don't know what I'd do without you by my side sometimes. Over this whole mission since I asked you on, you've grown to be one of my closest friends against all odds." she smiles wryly. "You were, I mean are, so damn stubborn when I first asked you on" she remembers.

"Pffft whatever Shepard, your name is next to the definition of stubborn." he says waving his hand nonchalantly.

"Ugh whatever bird-lizard" she says pushing him with the heel of her hand.

"I resent that" he's says putting a hurt look on his face, but he breaks into a laugh.

"Well needless to say you've come far." She looks at the sky for a second then looks back at Garrus with an odd look in her eyes. Like she could see the real him beneath the sarcastic armor he wore. "You have made this whole ordeal bearable knowing you had my back. Thank you for being with me through good times and bad. I..I wouldn't have it any other way" She turns to gaze at the sky again.

Garrus puts his hand on her arm to get her attention. They look at eachother for a moment. "It's a pleasure Shepard, if it makes you feel any better you've been that way to me too. I've never really been anything to be proud of turian-wise. My father is not very happy with me for joining you, but I have to say I actually feel like I'm making a difference. Thank _you_ Shepard for giving me the opportunity to be with you on this mission. Thanks for the push in the right direction. You've inspired me to be a better person. Being a spectre will be everything I wanted. The least I can do is look out for you. Besides, you always make it..interesting" he laughs.

"What do you mean by that? I'm always fun! pfft!" she huffs then looks at him with a smirk. "You know I think I found a nickname for you."

"Oh no, ok hit me with it. I'm ready."

"I realize everytime you're with me you seem to warm and lighten my spirits even when I'm in the worst mood. Your my own personal sunshine. It's not that masculine, but it has the most meaning for me. Thanks, Sunshine. I promise I wont be shouting it all over the place. It's more of a between you and me kind of nickname. One day I'll tell you why it's so important, but I don't want to spoil this beautiful day" she says smiling a little sadly.

Garrus looks up then closes his eyes and smiles, then looks at her. "Well besides the fact its kinda prissy, I think I can deal with it." He squeezes her arm then places his talon back behind his head with the other.

"Well I think I'm going to take a nap. Tali, the food was great thank you!" she says raising her voice a bit.

She glances over when she doesn't hear a reply. They were all taking a nap it seemed. Tali cocked her hand in a quick wave at Shepard as a thank you.

"Well I think we've needed this, don't you think Garrus?... Garrus?" she looks over and sees he must have drifted off into his own slumber. "Ugh, really peeps?" she mutters with a smile.

Jasmin looks at everyone while they're sleeping. _We have come so far as a team. How did I get so lucky in my friends?_ Shepard giggles a little to herself. _Funny how it took meeting people who aren't human to find kindred souls._

Shepard yawns a bit, laying back down. She closes her eyes and watches the light dance over her eyelids from the passing clouds on the citadel sky. _This was the best day..._ she thinks as she dozes off with a smile.

6 months later...

Garrus gets back to his very small room he stays in, while in spectre training, and notices he has a package sent from Illium. He reads the generic white tag on the top: **To:** Garrus **From:** Shepard. "Finally" he breathes. It was almost the end to her long patrol taking out straggling geth cells and Illium was her last stop. Then she'd be back home to the Citadel.

He'd be graduating to a spectre shortly after she arrives. "You, Me, and the crew at Dark Star lounge. We're drinking till we can't stand straight. Gotta celebrate the hot shot graduating to join the badass club with me" she had said with a wink._ I can't imagine what she would have sent me. Probably something shocking. Please don't be a Fornax magazine or something equally embarrassing._

He uses his talon to open the paper and finds a metal rimmed plastic box about the size of his palm. "Hmm, ok now you got me Shepard. What is it?" he mutters to himself.

He flips the catch, prying it open slowly and is surprised by what he sees. "Is this a holo?" He picks it up and tries to no avail to open it. "Ok seriously Shepard, this must be a joke" he says with a chuckle.

To his surprise it opens as a digital voice says "Voice signature recognized"_ Hah, leave it to Shepard _he thinks as he shakes his head. He opens it and presses the button bracing himself for anything at this point.

The little screen lights up with a whirring noise and he's in shock. It's a small holo of Shepard herself. She took the picture just right so it looks like she's looking at him. She's sitting back on one hip with her arms crossed, smirking. The picture captured her stubborn chin and defiant eyes perfectly.

After a minute a message from Shepard comes out "Hey Sunshine! Miss ya! I thought this was much more fun than sending a boring email. Hope you get this and stop being so frustrated. You are the best one there I'm assuming and you'll graduate with flying colors. Never mind the fact that you were one of the best men on the team who defeated Saren and Sovereign. And no, I'm not being bias either. How did I know you'd be thinking that?" she giggles. "I'm fucking amazing thats why."

"Still reading me like a book Shepard?" Garrus mutters with a smirk.

"Can't wait to see you! This patrol is shit! Let's send us out to kill geth, cause they are definately the reason we lost all those lives...ugh dumbasses. Anyway, I'm sending a huge hug your way Sunshine. I'll be needing to catch some rays when I get back. See you at the dock! Talk to you soon!" Then the message ended.

_Ah, I miss her. I can't wait till I'm done_ *sigh* "I better get this paperwork out of the way so I can graduate in this century." he laughs.

Garrus sat down at his desk with the holo open next to him while he filled out some papers for his graduation. He was just day dreaming, remembering that last day with everyone picnicking on the presidium, when his omnitool started beeping urgently. It was a call from Anderson. _Hmm wonder what he needs_?

Garrus presses the answer button "Hey Councilman, how can I help you?"

"Mr. Vakarian I need you to stop by my office in a minute if you could please."

"Umm sure, I finished with training a while ago, I'll be right there Councilman"

"Ok see you in a bit." Anderson says and hangs up.

Garrus a little confused, clips the holo closed and pops it in his pocket, leaving his room after locking it. He gets in the elevator a minute later and presses the button for the Presidium. _I wonder whats happening? I guess I'll find out soon_. He leaned against the wall of the elevator then smiles remembering Shepard, him, and the crew crowded in the elevator. The doors open and he walks out into Andersons office.

" Councilman Anderson, How can I help you?" he says while walking towards his desk.

"Please sit Garrus" he says, gesturing at the chair in front of his desk. Garrus sits in the chair, meant for a human, as comfortably as he can.

"About an hour ago the Alliance received a distress signal from the Normandy. Apparantly they were attacked."

"WHAT?! What do you mean attacked?" Garrus explodes, gripping the chair armrests so hard deep gouges appear from him talons.

"Please get control of yourself Vakarian." he says soothingly as he stares him down. Garrus sits back in the chair tensely.

"Garrus...I need you to stay calm ok." he stares him down. He takes a steadying breath then continues. "The Normandy was destroyed in the attack" he pauses as he sees the growing shock running across Garrus's face.

"Shepard...Shepard didn't make it. She made sure everyone else got out before it was completely destroyed. We haven't found her body yet, but Joker told me he was the last to see her and watched as she was spaced. I..I'm sorry Garrus. I know how close you were, I wanted to tell you in person rather than you find out on the news or something a lot more impersonal..." he stares at Garrus trying to make eye contact with him. "Garrus?"

Garrus had a blank stony face. He wasn't even twitching a mandable. "Garrus? Are you ok?"

"Shepards dead? How can this be?" He says with despair, putting his face in his hands. After a minute Garrus gets up, walking towards the elevator.

"Garrus wait.." Anderson says reaching for his wrist, but it was too late. Garrus was through the doors and they were shutting.

Garrus turns and punches the wall with a roar of anguish and rage. "Why!" He collapses to the floor on his haunches and wont move. _Why does it feel like something is weighing heavily over my chest making it hard to breath? This grief...she was just a comrade right? No!_ he shakes his head once slowly. _She's..she was Shepard, my Shepard. How could this happen? They were supposed to die together in a blaze of fire and bullets...together..._

Minutes later he hears the elevator warn that he's almost to his floor. He gets up like a puppet being pulled up by its strings and walks out the door. He doesn't know how, but before he know what's going on, he enters his room. Decrypting the lock, he shuts himself in. He takes out the holo of Shepard, opens it and turns it on, placing it on his nightstand. He lays down on his bed as the message on the holo replays again. "Hey Sunshine! Miss ya!..." A single tear rolls down his face._ Miss you too Shepard..._

A little less than 2 years later...

_Garrus is walking through a green grass meadow with blindingly beautiful sun and wildflowers blanketing the grass. It's his kind of day. He lies down, sinking into the plush grass and stares up into the sky thinking how this reminds him of another day he was happy. As if on cue he feels someone with soft hands squeeze his arm. He looks over and there's Shepard, smiling with that soft look she gave him so long ago. Her cerulean blue eyes seem to glow with warmth. _

_He can't handle it and turns away in grief._ Shepard's dead, she's not coming back_ he thinks to himself. A hand gently lays on his mandable, pulling his face back over and Shepard is right there, staring into his eyes smiling._

_"Shepard.." he sighs and pulls her into his arms in defeat, putting his face in her hair and smelling her scent._

_"Hey Sunshine, I miss you..." she says in his ear softly._

Garrus wakes with a start. His eyes start to focus and he can hear Shepards voice. He looks down and the holo clenched in his hand had activated. _Must've been talking in my sleep._ He still felt her warmth and scent surrounding him..then it was gone. He sits up, holding back his grief, and cradles his head in his hands. It's been two years since Shepard's death and it's still as fresh in his mind as the first day Anderson told him. Although he's started having vivid dreams of her like this only a month ago. They seem more than dreams, but he can't pinpoint there purpose. _What are you trying to tell me Shepard? You were never one to beat around the bush._

He sighs and rolls onto his feet and stretches. This is his first day off since he started this squad.

Once he quit spectre training he had gone back to C-Sec. His heart hadn't been in it now that Shepard wasn't there. Shortly after, the Council started a smear campaign against everything Shepard had fought for. "The Reapers are not real, the "Ship" that "crash landed" in the Citadel was just an advanced "Geth ship" etcetera, so on and so forth. Garrus went and argued with Councilor Valern for a good two hours, but it hadn't made a damn difference. Valern believed him, but he was outnumbered. The Council was absolutely blind to the truth! In his frustration, he resigned from C-Sec and took the next available shuttle to Omega, seeking out crimes he could make a difference against. Omega was lawless and he wouldn't have any shortage of criminals.

Now after about a year he's recruited battle ready volunteers. He started off on his own, busting every merc operation he could handle. No thinking required just straight forward surgical sniping. Next thing he knew, locals who had been harrassed by or had lost family to the mercs, were volunteering to help him keep making a difference. The people of Omega started calling him Archangel, there own dark angel of vengeance and justice.

Him and his team would be able to pull off bigger jobs than ever before. Eventually the Blood Pack, Eclipse, and Blue Suns had had enough. They had started a personal vendetta against them. So far they couldn't find their hideout. Today was a prep day. They were moving to another place tomorrow to elude discovery.

Garrus gets dressed, clips his armor in place and starts to check and clean his guns. He finally finished cleaning his sniper rifle when his omnitool starts beeping. Garrus flips it on, presses the answer button and a screen pops up showing his second in command Sidonis.

"Hey Garrus do you have a minute? I need some help with a quick job. Trying to secure some supplies for our new place. Your better at haggling and this guy is trying to sell them for twice what we had agreed."

"Ya sure Sidonis, where do you wanna meet?"

"I guess meet me at the shuttle, we'll get a cab from there and drive to the dealers house."

"Ok, Garrus out." and Garrus closes the connection.

Garrus walks to the door and yells to his team. "Be back in a few Sidonis is having trouble with that supply guy again."

"Dude that dealer is a pansy. Please find us another guy after this. I'm sick of having to grovel to his level and haggle so we don't get raped with the prices he charges." yells Sensat.

"Hah, ya and you try to stop leaving your wet towels on the floor in the bathroom and we'll call it even" Garrus laughs.

As he walks out the door he hears the rest of the team say "Ya seriously man, that shit smells all mildue-y.."

Garrus chuckles lightly and starts walking to the shuttle station.

Meanwhile...

_No...I can't die...Sunshine...I miss you.._

Shepards brain awakens to find that she may not be dead in space like her last memories, but there was a lot of noise and someone was yelling at her. Disoriented she hears a womens voice.

"...Shepard, you need to get up...Your scars haven't healed yet but the mechs have taken over the station and you are in danger... There's a locker with some armor and a gun...you need to get to it. Hurry!"

Jasmin gets up and grabs her jaw as a sharp pain shoots through it. _What scars? What's happened? I obviously didn't die in the crash. What the hell.. Ugh, whatever the hell is happening I'll figure it out after I'm out of danger..._

She staggers as she stands up and regains her balance. Walking over to the locker she grabs the armor out and puts it on as quick as she can. Picking up the handgun she finds out it's not loaded.

"Shepard get behind cover quickly!"

Jasmin dives for the partition in front of her as the door blows. "I need clips, this guns not loaded!" she yells at the disembodied voice.

"You'll have to find some. Now quickly through the door and to the right."

Shepard jumps up and sprints through the door. _Ugh I'm a bit more than stiff_. _Seriously, what's happened to my body?_ she muzes while holding her side.

She bursts through some doors into the second room shes come through and starts to head through cautiously, picking up some clips and loading them.

"Take cover, mechs are on the way into that room."

_Well, this women must be on her side, she deduces_. She puts on a burst of speed and takes cover as some mechs come through the doors.

Jasmin takes out three out of the five with some quick shots to the head. Then, remembering she has biotics she uses it to throw the rest against the wall behind them. The force of it is off by a lot though. Why does it feel like the "well" that she likes to think her biotics come from is much, much larger than it used to be. The small mechs are thrown so hard that they fall into pieces.

She experiments a little more and starts to levitate some crates. On a good day she could levitate about two or three medium size crates at one time. Right now she had three in the air and two more were following and even though she felt like crap she felt like she could have levitated many more than that. She let's them fall back to the ground in shock. _What kind of freak am I? Seriously, I feel like I have precise control over more biotics than I have ever had or seen anyone else have. _

"Shepard you've got to move. We need to evacuate this station, now!"

"Ok mother.." grumbled Jasmin as she sprints through the hallways, picking up some credits at a few random wall safes and datapads she finds. She finally comes through a door onto a balcony by an elevator.

"Shepard pick up the grenade launcher that should be right there, hurry some more mechs are coming through the door. Take them out!"

Jasmin picks up the grenade launcher with familiarity. "Oh old friend" she says as she grins. The doors open down below and three mechs start to walk through, but didn't reach the outside before Jasmin gave them a dose of the grenade launcher. Before the fire clears she's on the elevator and going down.

Once she reaches the ground she sprints threw the spewing fire from a leaking gas main that was the result of the grenade launcher explosion. She reaches the door and bursts through to see a dark skinned man in a tight combat suit taking out some mechs that are across on a balcony. She runs up next to him and takes cover.

"Shepard? What are you doing here? It must be pretty bad if Miranda has you up and running around."

"What is this place and how did I get here?" she glares at him hoping to get a straight answer out of him.

"There isn't time right now, we need to take out these mechs and get to the evacuation ships."

"Ok, but I am at leasted owed an explanation. Let's take out these mechs." Jasmin pulls out of cover and picks one off with a headshot then pulls another off the balcony with her biotics.

As Jacob takes out the last one, they stand up and dust themselves off. Jacob smirks at Shepard "Nice to see you haven't lost your touch. Ok lets get to the transport Shepard. It's through..." he's interrupted by someone over the com channel.

"Is anyone on this frequency? Anyone?!"

"Come in, this is Jacob. Who is this?"

"This is Wilson, I'm trying to hold off these mechs, but I wont be able to for much longer."

"Me and Shepard are here, we will try to get to you as soon as possible. Just hold on!"

"Wait what? Shepard's there? What the..? Ok I'll try to direct you around the mechs."

Jacob looks at Shepard "Come on we've got to hurry."

After fighting through some more mechs they run down a hallway and find Wilson and heal him with some Medi-gel. They fight there way through another room full of mechs with a little help from the grenade launcher. They finally arrive at the evacuation door and Jacob stops them.

"Stop, we need to wait for Miranda."

"She's probably dead by now" Wilson grumbles as if annoyed. Shepard looks at him suspiciously.

"Well I think its the least we can do considering she got me out of the lab safely trying to save my life." she glares at Wilson

"Well, we don't have time for this we.." he's cut short as he opens the door and a beautiful women with raven black hair and wearing a white body suit is standing there.

"Miranda!? I thought you were.." he doesn't get a chance to finish his sentence as Miranda shoots him in the head.

"Dead?" Miranda finishes for him.

"Miranda what have you done?" Jacob exclaims.

"He betrayed us all. He's the one who turned the mechs on us."

Shepard nods in the corpse's direction "I had a feeling he was just waiting to shoot me in the back"

"Good instincts. Now it's time to go. Any questions before we go Commander?"

"Uh ya umm where am I? I know it's some kind of lab facility and it must be well funded if there are that many mechs available, but that's just from observation."

"Well it's a good observation. You are on the facility that is working on the Lazarus Project. We have been working two years straight to bring your lifeless body back from the dead."

"Ya you weren't much but meat and tubes when you started off" Jacob adds.

"With the help of a lot of cybernetics and the greatest minds we pulled off a miracle: you." Miranda continues after Jacob's interruption.

"But who would go through all this trouble to bring me back? I mean I don't want to sound ungrateful and thank you for this unspeakably wonderful gift, but if I'm not mistaken this has to have cost a pretty penny."

"Cerberus is the organization who made all of this possible. They tasked me to this project with unlimited resources. If I'm not mistaken, which I rarely am, this project has cost over three billion credits."

"WHAT!?...ok now listen. I hate Cerberus as a collective whole. The experiments and other "Projects" I've seen were sick and horribly in-humaine. I will go along with you since you've "invested" so much into bringing me back, but if I find the reason they brought me back is not my cup of tea I'm out. Sayanara." she says with a finality and dangerous glint in her eye.

Miranda was only to happy to match that glint as she looks her over for a second considering what Shepard had said. "I knew I should have implanted a control chip in you. This is all on the Illusive man now. Come along we need to meet said man at his base of operations." she says with irritation as they pile into the shuttle.

One awefully long and frustrating shuttle ride later they make it to the Illusive Mans' base. It was huge. Shepard saw at least twenty spots where ships could dock.

Their shuttle docks and Miranda shows them to a room. "Shepard, you go through that door, the Illusive man is waiting for you." she says with smug satisfaction.

_You best wipe that little smile off your face bitch or I'll permanantly remove it._ Shepard thinks as she smiles sweetly and makes her way to the room.

_Ugh! The nerve of that self-centered douchebag! The "I own you therefore you do as I say" attitude will NOT fly with me bucco!_ Shepard calms herself down. _At least I have freedom to do as I please. If I do some missions here and there to help out Cerberus no big deal. I may not like the situation, but it definately could be a lot worse..I could be dead still._ Shepard stops and shivers remembering bits a pieces from her last moments floating in space.

Jasmin sighs heavily, walking up the hallway and to the armor customizer. _I'll talk to these two in a moment. Now let's see if I can still hack my personal settings from before_ she laughs mischieviously. She rapidly starts to input the data to hack into the settings and within two minutes or so she exclaims in victory with a little fist pump. Jasmin scrolls through the different decals stopping on the bluebird. She puts them on either side of where her collarbone would be in armor in a cerulean blue making the main color of the suit white. Then flipping through the rest she comes upon the perfect symbol for the back of her suit. _Well they got rid of my original ones on my back. This will have to do for now till we get to the citadel._ Finished the terminal tells her that the armor will be delivered to her later on that day.

Shepard pushes away from the terminal and walks over to Miranda. "Ok so we got off on a bad start. I know you've had the privilage of knowing all about me now for two years, but I on the other hand am a little in the dark on your specs Miss Lawson. And don't give me the "I'm perfect and thats all you need to know" bit. People have tried and failed with me on that one." She says smirking.

Miranda eyes Shepard, checking to make sure she's being serious. "Shepard I don't think this is the time and place for questions of this caliber. Right now all you need to know is that I am very good in everything you need me for on this mission."

Shepard shifts back on her left hip and crosses her arms on her chest. "Ok, later, but you will spill the goods." She says winking at Miranda then turns and walks in Jacob's direction.

_Why does she insist on being friends with me_? Miranda thinks exasperated and walks to the door to prepare the shuttle.

Shepard approaches Jacob and taps him on the shoulder. When he turns she holds her hand out "Let's do this properly eh? Hi I'm Commander Shepard, Nice to meet you." she says as she shakes his hand.

Jacob smiles and shakes her hand in return. "Jacob Taylor, and likewise." He let's go of her hand and crosses his hands on his chest and leans back on one side of his hip. "So is this where I get interrogated?" he asks, still smirking.

"Hah, you wish. No I just like to be polite if it kills me. If I start off on the right foot, I can at least say I tried." she says laughing. "So what's your background? My first thought was soldier." she urges him on.

"Well, we don't have time for the full story, but I'll give you the condensed version." he says. Jacob goes on to explain his Alliance background and how he left them to get into Cerberus so he could actually get things done without all the red tape. "I'm just anticipating seeing you in action. I've heard a lot about you Commander and it all seems like fairytale stuff." he says smiling.

"Oh, now there, you went and made me blush" she says dripping with sarcasm and fans her face. "I think I can promise a show though. Nothing ever stays normal around me for long. Hell, today is my first day awake after being dead for two years. It's already shaping up to be a fun ride." She laughs then slaps him on the shoulder. "Time to go though, I think Barbie is waiting for us in the shuttle." she says throwing her thumb in the direction of the doors.

Jacob laughs. "Don't ever let her hear you say that unless you want a sure and quick way back the way you came" he smirks

"Hah, thanks for the warning" _She'll be my friend if it kills her_ Jasmin thinks to herself as her and Jacob walk through the door.

Later on after the mission...

Shepard walks into the comm room and steps onto the projection unit. Shortly, the Illusive man appears in front of her. "Good job on Freedom's Progress Shepard" he says with satisfaction like he's her new puppy.

Shepard sighs in disgust "Well, you've convinced me of the threat of these Collectors. The Reapers have to be behind this. I'm going to need a good team so I will go about gathering my old crew as soon as possible."

"Shepard most of your old crew has split up. Some have even changed to other allegiances."

"Has there been any sign of Garrus Vakarian?" she had found most of them, but Garrus really had disappeared off the grid.

"The turian disappeared a few months after you were declared dead. Even we haven't been able to locate him."

Shepard wipes the look of disappointment from her face quickly and replaces it with her Commander's mask of determination and pride. "I'll find him..." she vows.

"Just remember-you've been gone a long time. Things have changed."

"Oh don't get your panties in a twist. You just worry about the Collectors. I'll make sure my team is ready when the time comes." Shepard says, sitting back on one hip and crossing her arms.

"Good. Two things before you go. I need you to head to Omega and find a salarian named Mordin Solus. He's a brilliant scientist and might be able to counteract the Collector's paralyzing swarms. Second, I've found a pilot you might like. I hear he's the best. Someone you can trust." the Illusive man says cryptically as he shuts down the comm terminal.

Shepard hears footsteps behind her and whirls around. She registers that someone in regulation cargo pants and shirt in cerberus colors then looks up into laughing green eyes and scruffy beard. A huge grin grows across her face.

"Hey Commander. Just like old time, huh?" Jokers says with a smirk.

"Joker? Oh thank goodness!" she declares and runs up and squeezes him in a tight hug. Tears squeeze a little out of her closed lids.

"Woh, it's really good to see you too Commander, but remember I'm a little fragilee." Joker says wincing after squeezing her back and smiling.

Shepard pulls him back and turns with him, arm across his shoulders. "I'm so glad you made it Joker. Couldn't imagine doing this without my brother in everything but blood." she squeezes him and lets go walking beside him. "Wait a minute! Hold the fricken phone! You're walking without crutches?! How is this possible?" she pushes Joker for an answer a huge smile on both their faces.

"Well, it all fell apart without you Commander. Everything you stirred up, the council just wanted it gone. Team broke up, records sealed, and I was grounded. The Alliance took away the only thing that mattered to me. So I joined Cerberus. They reinforced my bones which allows me to walk without crutches"

"You really trust the Illusive Douchebag?" Shepard said with astonishment.

Joker turns and smirks at Shepard. "Well I don't trust anyone who makes more than I do, but they aren't all bad. Saved your life, let me fly..and there's this." He looks at me with excitement. "They only told me last night."

They had arrived at a window into a hangar. The lights turn on slowly revealing the new and improved SR-2. "No fucking way..." Shepard breaths.

"Good to be home huh Commander?"

"Guess we'll have to give her a name eh Joker?" They look at eachother in mutual agreement.

Shepard pulls away and says over her shoulder to Joker "Time to put her through her paces buddy 'ol pal" she says waving him forward.

"Thought you'd never ask" Joker laughs.

Shepard, Jacob and Miranda walk in from the station pulling off their helmets. Shepard pats Jacobs shoulder "Good job on Freedoms Progress Jacob. You really are worth all the fuss, but keep working on quicker reaction times on those pulls. You'll get it eventually, I just play faster than most I think." she says with a smirk.

"Thank you Commander, I'll keep working on it. You are just as good as everyone says you are. It's definitely an honor to be on your team. "

"Hah, thanks. It came with hard work and a lot of guts." she says laughing.

As Shepard walks by the cockpit door she hears a faint voice. "Ya well being that old comes with perks."

Jasmin turns right around on her heel looking at Joker with mock disdain. "An age joke? Really? You're going to have to try a little harder than that pal."

"Hey don't hurt my feelings or anything. I'm a little rusty. Noone can seem to keep me on my toes like you."

"Excuses, Excuses..." Shepard mutters as she turns around and waves like she swatting a fly away.

"Ok Jacob go on. I'll check in on you tomorrow on my rounds."

"Ok cya Commander." Jacob waves once and walks towards the armory.

Shepard walks up and grabs Miranda by the shoulder gently. "A word if I might Ms. Lawson." She pulls her hand back to her side comes up beside her. "Walk with me" They walk slowly toward the elevator.

"I just want to say you also did an excellent job today, but there is only one thing I wanted to address if I could."

"Of course Commander. What is it?" she asks with a bored look on her face.

"I noticed you were a very...independent thinker on that mission, which is ok in some instances. I need you to become more of a team player though please Miranda. If we can't work as a cohesive unit we'll be up a creek without a paddle when it comes to crunch time. Am I understood Ms. Lawson?"

Miranda flushes with an indignant look "I'm sorry for the _inconvenience_ I caused you. I will try harder next time." she just barely spits out.

Shepard notices the effort she put into saying that sentence and barely holds in a smile. Maintaining a straight face she looks her straight in the eye "See that you do. That is all _Ms._ Lawson." allowing a small smirk to escape as she turns around to walk over to meet her yeoman.

Shepard hears sharp quick heel clicks disappear with the '_sssshnick_' noise of the elevator doors closing. Jasmin walks over and waves in greeting to Kelly. "Miss Chambers is it? How is everything?"

"Everything is fantastic as always, it is a pleasure to meet you Commander? How are you doing?"

"Terrific actually." she says while shaking her hand. "Any new messages or updates?"

"No emails at present, unless you count the penis enlarging email you got earlier that I took the privilege of deleting for you."

Shepard puts on a frantic look and grabs her arm "You deleted that email?! Oh crap I needed my penis larger by next week for my hot date. How will I ever get it larger in time?!" Shepard barely holds it in before she laughs so hard she has to hold her sides.

Kelly starts laughing just as hard and supports herself on Shepard's shoulder. "Oh my goodness Commander! How did you hold a straight face for that long? I was about to believe you. Hah!"

Shepard stands straight allowing a few last laughs then sighs. "I don't know it's a gift. On a more serious note though, please alert me to any emails of a secure nature. I'm trying to locate my friend."

"I sure can Commander. Are you looking for a Mr. Garrus Vakarian?"

"Uh ya, how did you know?"

"Well as your yeoman and unofficial shrink I was very thorough on my research of my fellow crew."

"Well, good to know that we have the best and brightest working on this ship."

"Thank you Commander" she says beaming "Also I would like you to meet our ensuite mobile defense system EDI" she says gesturing to the console as a blue ball head pops up.

"Hello Commander Shepard, I am EDI short for Enhanced Defense Intelligence."

"Very nice to meet you EDI. I look forward to working with you."

"As am I Commander Shepard. I am at your disposal." EDI ends with and blips out.

"Ms. Chambers, it has been a pleasure I am going to check out the rest of the ship and my crew."

"Thank you, it is very nice to finally meet you also. See you around Commander." she says with a wave then turns back to her console.

For the next hour Shepard makes an effort to introduce herself to everyone on the ship. Finding out there names and a little about them. "She is much nicer than I expected her to be." one support staff whispers once Shepard as left the room.

"I know, but we'll see how well she'll be in a real situation." a man says before they both turn back to work.

Meanwhile Shepard finds her way to the elevator and punches the "Captain's Cabin" floor. "Drumroll please..." she mumbles. 5 min later the elevator makes it to the floor. "Why is this damn elevator still so SLOW! Ack!" she grumbles throwing her hands in the air in frustration.

Jasmin steps forward through to the room door, opening it with a quick press of the green holo-button. When the doors open she's in shock. "This is huge!" she exclaims as she walks past the desk and bathroom to her right before walking down the stairs.

She runs her hand on the couch and then the bed as she walks around to the right side. She sits down slowly and bounces a bit. "Is this a real bed.." she whispers. She steals herself and falls back with an "oof" and a "mmmmm".

"EDI?"

"Yes Commander?"

"Please tell Joker to set a course for Omega and if you could wake me up in 2 hours please, I would appreciate it"

"Of course Commander, sleep well."

"Thanks EDI" she says smiling as she slips off her boots and unclips her armor leaving it in a neat pile on the floor. With her armor off she untucks the blanket and sheets and rolls underneath them. Wedging her pillow under her neck she drifts off into sleep.

Sometime the next day...

Jasmin paces her captains quarters thinking about what they've just found out about the collectors. _Now more than ever I need to exploit the resources Cerberus is graciously handing me. Now if only the Illusive Man wasn't such an ass this arrangement wouldn't be half bad_ she grumbles.

Shepard flops down on her bed with two datapads. Each are the two new dossiers she needs to start her team.

The first is the solarian Mordin Solus. _Very qualified for what we need him for, good. We'll grab him first._

The second is for a strategist, sharp shooter, and recently some kind of vigilante turian named Archangel. _Wow, Archangel. Poetic yet badass, I like it. Now if only I could find Garrus. He'd show this turian what badass is really all about_ she thinks, smiling to herself. _Man I miss him._

Jasmin gets up and starts to pull on her new armor. "Hey EDI, please inform Miranda and Jacob to get ready. We're going to get the doc and some turian with penchant for sniping."

"Of course Shepard, anything else?" EDI asks with her pleasant, but emotionless womanly voice.

"That'll be all for now, thank you EDI" she says with a smile._ I'm liking this AI so far._

"Logging you off Shepard."

"Alright! Time for some action!" Now that her scars are repaired Jasmin is ready to see what this body can do now. "Time to blow some shit up old girl" she says tapping her sniper rifle.

1 day later...

"Alright you two, I think we have our "Sabotage the Enemy Without Them Knowing" list complete, on to "Rescue a Bad Ass Turian Before the Mercs Execute Him" section." Jasmin says cheerfully.

"You do know you just electricuted a batarian just five minutes ago right?" asks Miranda, rolling her eyes.

"What_ever_ do you mean Miranda?" She says smirking.

"Well it's the decision I would have made. Keeping the gunship at fifty percent increases our odds of accomplishing this task by about ten percent bringing us to a total of eighty five percent chance of success." Mordin cuts in.

"Astute observation my dear Watson, now let's give these mercs a little present" Jasmin says as she unlatches her grenade launcher.

"Ahh lovely stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. I love the..." he starts before being cut off.

"I love them too Mordin, but not the best time. Let's schedule another time and have lunch."

"Very nice suggestion *breath* Will send an appointment to your terminal"

"Shepard you are full of surprises." Miranda says a little thoughtfully.

"Hey, I can like literature _and_ electricuting batarians. Think of it as an extra curricular activity" Shepard says smiling. "Ok enough, my pretty grows impatient" she says while petting her grenade launcher. Miranda smirks and follows Mordin and Shepard over the partition.

Garrus...

Garrus takes out yet another wave of cannon fodder from the endless free lancer pool the mercs have conjured up to destroy him. How did he go from leader of a team that spelled out the mercs doom to being at their mercy? _That bare face Sidonis will pay dearly!_ Garrus hits the wall with a roar. _There all dead, all twelve of my team are dead. How did I not see his betrayal? I have to stay alive. I will make him wish he died before I'm done with him._

Garrus gets his head back in the game as more free lancers jump over the barrier. He notices three people who seem to be working together. They are armed to the T and the one in the front is smirking like she's having fun. _Wait!...those eyes...the hair...Shepard? If I believed in heaven maybe my angel is coming to take me away..._ He snaps back and focuses, taking out three of the mercs then lining up on the fourth. Before he can pull his trigger a grenade blows the last three off the side of the bridge. In shock he looks for the culprit and spots the blue eyed warrior hefting her grenade launcher onto her shoulder _just like_.._Shepard? Can it really be her? It must be!_ He gets an impulse and goes with it, loading in a concussive round.

Shepard...

Jasmin is walking over the bridge when all of a sudden she gets blown back by a concussive round. She holds her balance, barely, and looks for the gunman._ It's the damn turian I'm trying to save...wait a minute..that armor...the concussive round..Garrus?_

"Hahaha!" she laughs and picks up the pace. Garrus and her used to have matches to see who could keep there balance against a concussive round. _Damn him_ she thinks while smiling widely._ It's so on!_

"I thinks she's gone off the deep-end Mordin." Miranda says in a low voice.

"Hah, I need to settle a score with an old friend. Hurry lets see how fast we can kill these stragglers." she says with a grin, ever the competative type.

"Your on Commander" Miranda says with a wicked sneer.

Jasmin, Mordin, and Miranda get through the rest in record timing. As they walk through the door Garrus stands to greet them and gets a concussive shot as a hello.

"Paybacks are a bitch ain't they?" Shepard says with a smirk.

Garrus steadies himself and pulls off his helmet. He smiles a wide turian smile, opening his arms wide. Seeing what he wants she runs up and takes a flying leap. Garrus catches her and twirls her around then sets her down. He takes her hand back though _If I let her go she might disappear._ He thinks ernestly. Garrus takes a good look at Shepard. "Well aren't you a sight for sore eyes. How the hell did you get the same armor decal and everything?" He pauses, lost for words. "Jesus Shepard...it's like you never left...like time just stood still. How are you still alive? I..w-we thought you were dead?" He looks at her with a peircing stare from his predatory face, like he was searching to see if it really was her.

"We will have to save the whole story for another time" she says reaching up to cup the right side of his face with her hand. She peers into his eyes as she speaks. "One thing I can say to you though is that I would never choose to leave you alone. Not ever." she says with a squeeze. Just for a brief second she catches glimpses of..._Garrus's thoughts? _The grief and loss he's endured since her death... It brings tears to her eyes. _What the hells just happened? Is this from my biotics? I felt something was off, but this..I've never heard of this..ever. Ugh I'll have time for this later._ She thinks with impatience. She focuses on Garrus's face. "Garrus how did you get yourself into this situation?" she asks.

Garrus turns away from her intense scrutiny, walking over and looking out the window with his head down. "My feelings got in the way of my better judgement." he pauses and looks at Jasmin over his shoulder. "I'll make you a deal, you get me out of here alive I'll tell you the whole damn thing."

Jasmin looks into his eyes for a minute then nods. She walks up and slaps his shoulder. "We'll work as a team. These guys aren't that tough, besides with all of us and the famed "Archangel" how could we be beat?" she smirks at Garrus.

"Oh no, now don't give me shit for the nickname the locals gave me." he says in fake exasperation, falling into the old groove that he and Shepard always had.

"Hey, settle down. It sounds like a stripper name is all I'm saying. I _have_ been gone for two years and a turian has to make ends meat" she starts laughing really hard and walks towards the door.

"Hah! At least my _real_ name doesn't sound like a strippers." he counters with a chuckle.

Shepard turns around and with a flick of her wrist wrenches his gun out of his grasp and starts thumping his own sniper rifle on his head with her biotics. She maintains it for a bit while walking out the door. All he can hear on the comm is "..stop hittin' yourself, stop hittin' yourself.."

It finally stops and Garrus gets control of his rifle again. He sighs contentedly, _It's so nice to be back by her side. Partners in crime once again._ he thinks with a wide smile.

Just as Shepard get's into position Garrus hears her say "This is gonna be fun.."

The first mechs come over the bridge. He takes out one with a headshot causing it to explode and take out another one with it. Quick as a wink he sees a bullet cleanly pass through the eye of the mech to the right, making it overload. "Been working on our aim have we?" he chuckles.

"I was a little rusty, but Miranda and I had some lovely target practice on Freedom's Progess a couple days ago. Didn't we Miranda?"

"Totally, Jacob got left in the dust the poor sod." she laughs.

After Garrus takes out Jaroth, everyone meets back up top. "So Garrus what's next?" Shepard asks as she saunters over with her rifle thrown over her shoulder.

"Well they don't seem to be.." he's cut off by a explosion that sounds deep below them. "Shit, I guess they had to use their brains eventually. We need to head them off in the basement. Shepard I'll stay here, you and your team try to go close those doors. I'll give you directions if you need it."

Shepard shakes her head. "Let's split up two and two. Mordin, you stay with Garrus just don't talk his ear off ok slugger?"

"He will be safe with me Commander." he says walking over to stand by Garrus while reloading his submachine gun with a click.

"I'm counting on you Mordin thank you." she says grasping his shoulder for a second. "Oh and Garrus, you stay alive. No risky "Bad-ass" maneuvers. Now get your tight turian ass in position while Miranda and I get us some trophies" she says with a wink.

"Are you trying to make me blush Shepard? Better luck next time." Garrus drawls.

"Oh drat! I'll just have to try harder next time" she says mockingly. "Alright, lets hustle Miranda. We've gotta close those doors quickly." she says, getting back into business.

"Yes Commander, at your lead." and they sprint down the stairs.

Miranda turns off her comm for a moment while they are jogging through the hallways "You and Garrus were close I take it?"

"Yes, very. My life has been full of people I couldn't trust or count on. He's filled that void in my life. He was my missing puzzle piece so to speak. I don't know what I'd do without him honestly. I've been searching everyday for him since we got on the Normandy. It's funny to find him here on Omega of all places. I'm just glad to have him back."

"Well, it'll be nice getting to know someone you think so highly of Shepard."

"I didn't know you liked strippers Miranda." she says her giggles echoing down the hallways as they keep up their ground eating pace and get to the first door.

Without realizing it Garrus had heard everything she'd said and a deep rumbling purr had started in his chest. Then he realizes too late that Mordin is there with him and clicks off his comm for a second. "You didn't hear anything are we clear?" he directs his question at Mordin.

"Crystal Garrus" Mordin says with sincerity.

Shepard and Miranda breeze through closing the doors and are on there way back when they hear a strangled yell from Garrus.

"What the hell's going on up there? Mordin I need an answer now. We're on our way."

"Shepard, we are battling the Blood Pack leader Garm. I'm pinned and he has cornered Garrus and it's not looking good."

"Garrus! Please hold on I'm almost there!" _I will NOT lose him again! _ Shepard puts on a burst of speed, her whole body lighting up with her biotics. She feels her biotics rush through her, overwhelming all other thoughts.

"What are you doing Shepard?! I can't keep up with you! Wait!" Miranda yells after Jasmin, but it's too late she has only one focus: keep Garrus alive.

Jasmin rushes through the doors into a battleground, Vorcha and krogan everywhere. She gets pinned and can't get a shot in edge-wise. _I have to reach him NOW!_ Her fury starts to build and the outward manifestation of her biotics starts to show. Her hair starts to lift up in loose tangles, swirling as if in a water current. Her blue eyes become even more intensely blue, almost sparking. She becomes fury and vengeance incarnate creating an aura of blue flame around her. The currents seem to form wings behind her. With utter confidence, this picture of beauty and justice lithely gets to her feet and strides out into the open. With a flick of her wrist she grabs and breaks every vorchas neck with tendrils of biotic power, then turns her attention to the krogan. Creating a large claymore out of blue fire, she darts forward, piercing through the first krogans armor. She pulls it free of the krogan corpse and whirls around to slice the other krogan in half.

As the claymore becomes one with herself once more she hears a yell "Archangel this will be your last stand! Your mine!"

"NEVER!" Jasmin screams as she swiftly flys up into the second story.

When she deftly alights to the floor she spots Garm going for the killing blow on Garrus. Jasmin brings her hands up and multiple biotic spikes pin Garm to the opposite wall. She slowly approaches Garm, all the while he's bleeding profusely onto the floor.

He can't keep his eyes off of this blue angel, this vengeful goddess. _Who is she? He can't die! He's motherfucking Garm, leader of the Blood Pack! This bitch dies today!_ he thinks with a loud snarl, spittle flying at her face.

Before the spit reaches her it hisses and evaporates. She finally reaches him and is a few inches away from his face. "I will not lose him to the likes of you, you worthless scum" she purrs dangerously. Then, while staring at him without blinking, she twists her biotic spikes, eviscerating all four of his hearts. She pulls out the spikes and he slips to the floor.

For a moment, all is very quiet, then she hears a small hoarse double-toned whisper "...Shepard? Is that you?"

She turns around and sees Garrus is tired, but unscathed. "Your ok..I'm so glad." In her relief she loses all her purposed anger. Her biotics absorb back into her and she feels like an empty waterskin. Shepard falls to the ground in a faint.

Garrus jumps forward and catches Shepard in his arms. He sits, all the while cradling her on his lap. _What just happened? Her biotics never did that before? She was always a pretty powerful biotic, but this? This was beyond comprehension_.

At that moment Miranda skids to a stop in the doorway. "Where's Shepard?! She just ran off and.." she's cut off as she spots Shepard in Garrus's arms. "What the hell happened?"

"She turned into a blue, biotic, flaming person and killed everyone, I think that about sums it up."

"What?!..." Miranda kneeds her forehead.

"Ok can't deal with this just now, we need to get her conscious. The Blue Suns will be on us soon by my calculations." Garrus reminds Miranda. He leans down and gets close to Shepard's ear "Hey Shepard...you better wake up or I'll kill all these mercs by myself..." he says in a sing song two tone voice.

He watches her face and he sees her start to smile, then her eyes open sleepily, ocean meeting ice. "Hey Sunshine" Jasmin says cuffing his chin then starts to sit up. "Can you help me up here stud?" she asks Garrus with a smirk.

"Ok umm so how did I end up here? I remember running as fast as I could to come save you Garrus and after that its a blurr." she's rubbing her forehead.

"I don't know that you lost control, but your biotics flared and you killed everyone to get to Garrus." answers Mordin. "I think there were six vorcha and two krogan. I will check to make sure your implant wasn't damaged when we get back to the ship Shepard."

"Ugh...if you have to. I don't like missing moments in my memory like that. Ok don't we have some Blue Suns coming to play target practice with our heads?" she says with a grin trying to shake the uneasy feeling. _What happened to me?_

"Ahh there's my Shepard, ok let's do this." Garrus says grinning, but watching her with concern.

Just as if by clockwork they hear the sound of thrusters "What the F...oh shit! Everyone in cover! NOW!" Shepard yells as the Blue Suns gunship breaks through the glass of the room.

Wave after wave of Blue Suns mercs come repelling down the building into the room. "Damn I'm glad I electricuted that batarian" Shepard comments as she takes a last shot on a merc.

"What, you mean the fact that you enjoyed that way too much didn't come into play?" Miranda says smirking and reloading her submachine gun.

"What _have_ you been up to Shepard?" Garrus says with mock exasperation.

"Ugh! Whatever, at least when we have to finally take down that gunship it'll only be halfway working. So shut your respective pie-holes already." Shepard says waving them off her back. "Monkeys..." she mutters.

They all giggle to themselves, but are cut off as the gunship makes a surprise entrance. Garrus was left wide open. "Archangel!" the batarian yells at him over the gunship comm.

Garrus swings around, trying to get a shot in on the pilot, but the pilot shoots first. Garrus is knocked back onto his knees with every round. He is able to crawl into some cover, but the ship tares it apart like its nothing. He sees Shepard, she pleading with her eyes for him to roll to her. He gets halfway across and a missile meets him in the face and his lifeless body rolls to the ground.

Shepard swiftly makes her way as close as she can get to Garrus. "Garrus, please...say something" He doesn't even look like he's breathing. "Arrgh! I am so done with this shit! Your going to fucking die!"

Shepard gets up looks the pilot straight in the eye as she becomes blue flame. She shoots a grenade at the glass cock-pit shattering it. Then she takes her biotics and levitates him out of his seat. "Have a nice trip.." she mutters and biotic slams him plummeting to the ground from three stories.

She calms her breathing and her biotics seep back into herself. She runs to Garrus looking him over without moving him too much. _Why isn't he breathing? I WILL bring him back!_ She thinks, desperately trying to find a way to get him breathing again. Mordin performing the turian for of CPR wasn't working. Shepard hugs him, clinging to him with all she has. She takes off her gloves and gently touches his face, holding it in both hands. On a hunch, she summons her biotics and feels the warmth spread all over. _I hope I know what I'm doing_. Jasmin pushes her consciousness on Garrus as gently as she could and she instantly feels his thoughts, but they're faint and getting fainter.

_"Garrus "Gar-Gar" Vakarian you get your tight, bad-ass, turian butt back here. I'm not _nearly _done with you!" _He's still slipping through her grasp. _"Garrus please..I didn't find you to lose you again.."_ She can't get a grip on him. _"No Garrus...please.."_ She desperately grabs his consciousness with no luck. Shepard starts to cry, she knows there, must be no hope._ "You mean the world to me, please come home to me." _she begs and starts to cry.

Garrus was slipping away, away from the pain and harsh reality. He knows there's a reason he should fight, but he starts to relax and drift into a slumber. _Wait..what's that warmth I'm feeling._ He feels a warmth, that he remembers faintly, envelope him. _Please Garrus...I couldn't do this again...not without you. It was hard enough getting lost in the dark, but without my sun I'm nothing_ she sobs. _Shepard!_ Garrus gasps. Was he really just about to take the path that led away from Shepard? His sunny day? His comrade in arms? _Never!_ he growls in his thoughts._ I'll never leave you alone, not as long as I have any say in the matter._ He feels himself moving back into the harshness he had run away from and braces himself. _This is gonna hurt._

Shepard releases her hold on her biotics and sags in exaustion. She ignores Miranda's pleas for her to answer her and leans in to look into Garrus's eyes. Ocean meets ice as Garrus gasps in a breath. "Joker I need you to send a pick-up ASAP! Garrus please hold on!" They held eachothers gaze then Garrus's eyes glaze over and he passes out again, blood squelching from his wound and pooling on the floor.

A few hours later...

Shepard, still in her armor, is pacing back and forth in front of the doors to the med-bay as Mordin and Dr. Chakwas perform surgery on Garrus. Just when she thinks she wont be able to wait any longer Mordin walks out wiping his hands off with a towel. "So Doc...will he be ok?"

"We had to use quite a lot of cybernetics and he lost a lot of blood, but it seems he will make a full recovery." he says while patting Shepard's shoulder.

"Can I go in to see him?" she asks with a little hope in her voice.

"You can, but only for a short while. He's still recovering and he's probably not even conscious for that matter." he says with a little humor as he walks away towards the elevator.

Shepard walks in and carefully walks up to Garrus's bed. First thing she notices is he has only pants on. _Wow, this'll probably my first and only time for this peep show_ she laughs to herself. She bends over and gently places herself above his face looking at him and cringes. _I was so close to losing him_. She bends even lower till shes level with his right ear.

"Hi Sunshine, I've missed you. Thank you for coming back to me. I'm only popping in for a quick second because Dr. Chakwas is giving me the hairy eyeball. I also really need to take a shower. Three merc groups on top of kneeling in a pool of your blood has made me smell really groady. I'll be waiting for you slugger." She whispers then kisses his ear.

"Ok Chakwas he's all yours." Shepard says with a wave as she walks out.

"Gee thanks, just what I always wanted.." Shepard hears Dr. Chakwas mutter as she strolls out of the door toward the lab.

Jasmin walks in and sees Mordin standing there with his equipment splayed out. "Ready for your check-up?" he says with a smirk.

"Ugh, as ready as I'll ever be. Get this over with quick like bunny." she lies facedown on the exam table.

Jasmin can feel his gentle but confident touch as he starts to test out her implants. Then they pause and she hears a small suck-in of breath. "Something wrong Doc?" She asks a little worried.

"I don't know what to say."

"Ok Doc that is the first time since I've met you. I didn't think it was possible" she says nervously.

"Shepard I don't know what has happened to cause this, but it seems your implants have become fused to you. Simply putting it, they have become one with you body."

"What!?" Shepard jerks up from her position so she can look at his face. "If you were anyone else I would need a second opinion, but I trust you" she steadies her breath. "What does this mean for me?" she looks him straight in the eyes.

"I have not heard of a case of this caliber before Shepard *breath* This is a completely unique case. If you are ok with it I will continue to examine you on a daily basis to mark any changes. I will need you to meet me here everyday immediately after you wake up. *breath* Sometimes twice if you happen to go on a mission that day."

"Am I ok to use my biotics then?"

"Yes, please use them as usual, but please refrain from using them in a highly emotional state. If my guess is correct. *breath* which they usually are. The lapses in memory when your biotics become tempestuous are triggered by extreme emotion." he ends with a smirk.

"Uh, ya hehe...umm I'll try to keep tighter reins on myself Doc." she says sheepishly.

"Ok you may go. I really think you are in need of a hot shower? You smell like you just were in a gunfight."

"Oh haha, thanks a lot _Mordin_..ugh." she starts to walk out the door, but stops. "Hey send me a good time. I wasn't kidding about having lunch to talk about literature with you. It is a rare thing to meet someone who has the same interests and might be able to enlighten me onto new ones."

"I most certainly will Shepard. I am looking forward to it."

"Me too, cya later Doc" she says, waving as she struts out of the doorway in the direction of the elevator.

_She really is something unique_ he thinks as he watches her hips sway around the corner. The door swished close and Mordin shakes his head. _She'll have everyone in the palm of her hands in no time._ He chuckles and starts busying himself with the seeker swarm study.

Shepard stops to chat with Kelly Chambers seeing if there's any new messages. "Ok so same time tomorrow Chambers?"

"Yep, we'll go over what's on the agenda next. For now I think we all need some rest. It's been a hectic first few days. I don't want everyone becoming more stressed than they need."

"I can't argue with that." Shepard says as she has a jaw cracking yawn. "Cya later Kelly. Don't work too hard."

"Cya Commander. Sleep well. Oh and don't worry about Garrus. He'll pull through. The best thing you can do for him right now is get some rest so you can be there for him when he wakes up. Noone has seen you cranky yet, but I think I'll pass on that life experience." She smirks at Shepard then turns around to her computer console.

"Hah! Ya I wouldn't wish that on anyone. I'm a sight to be seen when I get cranky sometimes. *Yawn* Ok Ciao bella!" Shepard walks into the elevator and pushes the button for her cabin floor. The minute the doors closes she collapses against the wall in exaustion. _It's hard work keeping up that front after all I went through today. Garrus...my good friend. Get better soon Sunshine._

The doors open onto her floor. Shepard mindlessly decrypts her door and walks through peeling off her armor and clothes as she sleepwalks to her bed. She collapses onto the bed and has one last thought to cover herself with the sheet before becoming every semblence of a comatose person. EDI turns off all the lights and feeds the fish for her. "Good sleep Shepard."

Shepard gently wakes to the waterfall noise from the fish tank filter. She notices the lights had turned off and the blue glow of the fish tank was all that illuminated her room. _Curious, I don't remember turning those off._ She rolls over snuggling in for a minute while she watches the stars drifting across her skylight. _If only I could share a moment like this with someone. Some day someone will sweep me off my feet._ Jasmin stops her thoughts for a moment _Hah! ya right _

Sighing, Shepard shifts her feet till they are off the bed. She stands, stretching her willowy body to the ceiling. "EDI has Mr. Vakarian shown any signs of waking up yet?"

"Yes Commander. Dr. Chakwas is preparing to do a full examination to see the extent of his injuries and how everything is healing so far. Dr. Chakwas says that when he is given permission to leave the Med-bay she will tell you so that you can meet him in the briefing room."

"Thank you very much EDI. That's all for now."

"Your welcome Commander."

Shepard slipped into her black, tightfitting, calf-length gym pants and fuschia sports bra. She grabbed her running shoes and slung them over her shoulder. After encrypting her door she hopped in the elevator. She started to slip into her shoes and tie them thinking about what needed to be done for today. She let out a large sigh. "First things first. Time to myself at least for a little while." Shepard leans against the wall quietly, but is interrupted.

"Commander, Mordin has asked you to meet him in the lab to check on your biotic implants."

"Double frick" Shepard sighs heavily. "Ok EDI tell him I'll see him shortly." she grumbles. Shepard reaches over and punches the button for level 2. The elevator changes direction and arrives in seconds. She strides out of the elevator and hangs a left into Mordin's lab.

"Ok Doc, lets get this over with quickly. I have a date with a punching bag."

Mordin turns around "Hello Shepard I'm ready to start your examination if you are." He smiles and guestures at the table.

After Mordin does a thorough investigation of her biotic implants he allows her to sit up. "There has not been any changes it seems *breath* but still be aware of any changes you feel and please report them to me immediately Shepard."

"No problem Doc. I may take risks, but I'm not reckless. This is important. Thank you Mordin." she smiles and kisses his cheek as she skips/jogs out of the lab. "Cya later Mordin!" she says over her shoulder.

"Why is it she seems to always get the last word" he mumbles to himself after touching where she had kissed his cheek. "Women..." he grumbles and walks over to continue his research.

"Ahhh" Shepard sighs as she stretches and seats herself in a single lotus buddha pose, resting her hands in her lap. After her usual exercise routine she usually did meditation. She found it centered her for the entire day, helping her make decisions with cool and calm precision.

She breathes in and out _1, 2.._ in and out _3, 4.. _She feels warmth spread throughout her body, the muscles relaxing one at a time. With one more breath in, then out, she pushes everything out of her thoughts except the soothing rhythm of her breathing. It never feels empty to her because this wasn't silence, this was calm.

Garrus...

Garrus inches off of Dr. Chakwas's exam table and gingerly plants his feet on the ground, standing slowly. "So what's the damage Dr. Chakwas?" he asks bracing himself mentally.

"Well Garrus you really were on the brink. Shepard said you weren't breathing at one point. There will be some extensive scarring on your face."

"I guess I'll have to start dating krogen." he says smirking at the doctor then winces as the right side of his face gave a sharp pain.

"I told you not to move that side Garrus, please heed my words next time...*sigh*"

"Sorry Doc, you know me. I run before I walk" he says with a chuckle.

Doctor Chakwas sternly glares at him for a couple seconds, but then a small grin replaces the frown on her lips. "Just please be more careful next time Mr. Vakarian."

"Oh man, you mean business. Using last names and everything." he says with a mocking roll of the eyes.

"EDI, can you please contact Shepard. I know she expressely made me promise to tell her when Garrus was up and ok to leave the medbay."

"Commander Shepard is in the cargo bay. I think she is...Meditating if my calculations are correct."

"Hmm..please tell her anyway EDI, thank you."

"You're Welcome Doctor Chakwas, signing you off."

Shepard...

Shepard has just gotten to 1,236,547 she's in complete blissful mental release.

"Shepard, sorry to interrupt, but Garrus is leaving the medbay. Dr. Chakwas just finished."

Shepard pops open her eyes and her face positively beams with the smile on her face. She gives a little *whoop* and with a burst of biotics blasts herself toward the elevator, skipping up to the lift button and pokes it giddily. She starts watching the light blink downward. It arrives and she's waiting for the door, bouncing on her feet. "Where is he at the moment EDI?"

The doors open and Garrus is leaning against the back wall, hands on either side holding the railing, smirking as always. "Right here, in the flesh" he says.

She beams her smile at him. "Hah! You're sneakier than the average turian I see. I should have known you wouldn't wait until I got up there like a good little invalid." Her smile morphs into a smirk and she walks forward and holds out her fist, waiting for Garrus. He smirks and cocks his head. Garrus bumps her fist and they splay their fingers out like an explosion. They laugh together and Garrus makes room for Shepard, both of them leaning on the wall.

"I'm really glad to see you're ok Garrus" she says smiling to herself then looking up at him with a smirk. "At least those scars only enhance your devilishly handsome looks."

"Oh stop it Shepard, you might make me blush this time" he says in a drawl.

Shepard's giggles bubble up and fill the whole elevator with mirth. "Hey, if nothing I'm persistant." she says sneering.

Putting on a little more serious face Shepard looks at Garrus "How long did Chakwas give you till your up and ready?" she asks.

"I'm fit for duty whenever you need me Shepard." he says confidently.

Shepard gives him a pointed stare.

"Oh don't pull out the 'Commander Shepard Radar' so soon in the game. That's just cheating." he scoffs.

"Seriously though Garrus, please take it easy on yourself. I worry ok, you know me."

"Ya ya, ok. Don't get your panties in a twist. I'll be fine. I promise to take it easy."

"Good" the doors open and Shepard walks out with Garrus right behind. They get to the stairs to the forward battery and Shepard stops him and turns him with her hand on his wrist. "I have to go and discuss next the plans of action with Ms. Lawson. I think you can remember how to calibrate large guns Mr. Vakarian." she says waggling her eyebrows.

Garrus shakes his head in humor. "Well, you said you were persistant. Maybe one day you'll make me blush, but don't count on it." He turns to walk away, but Shepard turns him around.

"I promise to have that talk soon. ok? We have some catching up to do." Shepard walks up and gives him a hug.

Garrus is taken by surprise, but finally wraps his own arms around her then laying his head on top of hers. "Missed you too Shepard." he says with a deep chuckle.

Shepard pulls away sniffing and wiping an eye. "Aww now look what you made me do? I'm leaking" she says with mock dismay. "Ok, get some rest. I need you in top shape. You're my best and I need you to stay that way, understood?"

"Of course Shepard."

"Be ready for a brief at 0700 tomorrow. We'll be in the communications room." Shepard says clapping her hands then rubbing them together. "Now down to business. I'll see you later Garrus." she says turning around with a hand in the air saying goodbye.

Garrus turns and walks into the forward battery. He scopes everything out then spies something different. _Is that an actual bed?_ He walks over and takes a better look at it. "It's big enough for me. Oh thank goodness. Thought I would have to sleep on those damn cots again. No good sleep comes out of those." Garrus settles on the bed with his talons behind his head. "*sigh* a turian could get used to this. *Yawn* I think I'll just take a quick nap..." he mumbles as he drifts off to sleep.


	2. Chapter 2

**Sunshine****:**

**Thank you for your feedback guys! I really enjoyed writing this story and I'm glad you liked it :) I think I'll make these chapters shorter because I think I took quite a bit to update...ok really long. Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday! I know that I certainly did! Alright chapter 2! Let the fun continue!**

**Disclaimer: Don't own these lovely characters of Mass Effect, wish I did. :)**

**...**

**Chapter 2:**

Shepard walked away from the battery doors, already deep in thought. _I need to get the ship diagnostic ran so I can figure out what else needs to be done..._

"EDI please tell Joker to set a coarse for Purgatory please."

"Of coarse Commander Shepard"

"Thank you."

"My pleasure Commander."

Shepard arrives at Miranda's office doors and as they open she strides through. "Time for plans Miri" she says clapping twice loudly.

Miranda jumps and falls out of her chair. "What the f... Commander Shepard...mmhmm... What can I help you with?" she says as she lifts herself back into the chair, fixing her hair like nothing happened.

Shepard eyeballs her for a second. _Nice save Cerberus_ she thinks almost smirking. "I need to go over with you what comes next."

"Do you really need me to help you make decisions? The Commander _I_ read about..."

"Well if you don't want me to be anywhere near you that's all you had to say" she says and turns to leave the room.

"No, no Commander...uh run it for me. Whats ideas do you have?" she says hurriedly.

_Aaand I'm in. Phase one, success_ thinks Shepard with a smirk.

"Well Miranda I was thinking about going to get some minerals to stock up. Can never have enough it seems" Shepard says as she eases into the chair across from Miranda's desk, crossing her legs and arms.

**2 hours later...**

"Thank you for your help Miranda. I'm glad I came to you. I would have never thought to pick up some of the modules at Omega instead of the Citadel. There's sure to be some at lower prices."

"It was my pleasure. Now if we are done..?"

"Of course Miranda thank you for your time" Shepard replies nodding her head and turning out the door. Smirking, she walks over to the kitchen for a quick cup of chai tea. _Annoying waste of time, Check._ _Phase 1, success._ She pauses in her thoughts smiling mischievously._ Tough nut, but I'll crack her_.

She starts digging through the cupboards "Now where did my tea go...? Erg!...ah ha!" she exclaims as she maneuvers the can out of the cupboard. Prying the lip of the lid off she inserts her nose and inhales. "mmmmmmmm"

"Lemme guess chai tea?" a deep voice says beside her ear.

"Wahh!...what the hell?!" she gasps, suspending whoever it is up in the air with her biotics.

"Oh come on!" Garrus says from above Shepard.

"Shouldn't surpise me then eh? What are you doing up anyway? I remember sending you to bed young man!" she says with mock incredulity.

Shepard saunters over and looks up at him. "What're you doing?" Garrus says a little worried. She only looks at him with a wicked smile and walks over by his knees. "No...noo don't...ugh..Shepard..." he says struggling to get out of her biotic field.

"Too late pal." she reachs up and puts a finger behind his knee and starts to put pressure and move her fingers.

"Ahahahahahaaaa! Nooooo please Shep-p-pard heheHAH!"

"Had enough Mr. Vakarian?" she says with a huge grin on her face. She continues with even more vigor.

"I give Ahhhaa! I give! Your the HA! best! Ok please stop!" Garrus's laughing is deep and melodious, hitting notes she hasn't heard in awhile.

Shepard pulls her hand away and moves back a step. Slowly she lowers him to the ground.

Garrus starts to pull himself together, but collapses again breathing hard with a laugh. "Ugh, my jaw...Damn you Shepard! I was hoping you'd forgotten that spot."

Shepard walks over and gives him a hand standing. "Sorry about that, forgot about your jaw." She cups the right side of his face looking at him then flicks his nose, turning around to the counter again. "Like hell I would forget the one advantage I've found, since you found out I'm ticklish on my sides."

Garrus flexes his talons with a chuckles. "Yep best day ever. I'd grow some eyes behind your head if I were you."

"Who says I don't already have some?" she says lifting an eyebrow at him.

Garrus straightens up looking at her, hesitating then asks "Seriously?"

Shepard barks a laugh and continues her mission.

Shepard grabs a mug out of the cupboard and sets about getting the rest set up for her tea. while the kettle starts warming she turns around leaning on the counter. "So why are you up and about?" she asks with concern.

"Well I had planned on just getting some water and going back to bed. Who knows if I can fall back to sleep now after my biotic acrobatics." he says pushing her left shoulder.

"Well you know better than to sneak up on me." she says smirking and pushing him back.

"Yeah, well didn't cross my mind till after I already scared you. It was too late by then though." he said, chuckling.

Shepard pours the hot water from the whistling kettle into a mug and inserts her tea bag. While it steeps she quickly whips up a glass of water for Garrus. "Come on Garrus" she says handing him the water and grabbing his hand with her tea in her other. She leads him back into the battery to the bed. "Now lie down and relax" she says as she sets his glass and her mug down on his work station.

"Shepard what.."

"I'm going to help you get back to sleep ok silly." she says rolling her eyes. "Now lie back."

Shepard moves the rolling chair from his station over behind his head and lowering it a bit. She sits, leaning over Garrus's head looking at him. "Now just relax ok? I was taught pressure points in all species and aced it remember? Not all the things I learned were '10 ways to kill a turian'." she said smirking. "That's how I found your ticklish spot. Now close your eyes and focus on relaxing your body from your toes up."

Shepard gently brings her fingers to rest right above his brow ridges and presses gently while tracing up his head. She tenderly makes circular motions till she reaches his head fringe then eases the pressure and lightly drags her fingers down again to his brow. She keeps repeating this several times, then to her astonishment he starts a deep, rumbling, purring noise noise and she stops immediately. "Uh Garrus, what was that?" she says a little worried.

"Uh wuh..oh sorry...I was enjoying that..normally I try to stop myself from doing it. Kind of embarrassing since I've heard it compared to a small furry animal called a Kit-T?"

"Hah! Oh my god sorry. I shouldn't laugh sorry. Mmhmm" she clears her throat. "It's endearing and you shouldn't be embarrassed. I like it." she says trying not to smile.

"If you say so Shepard" he says relaxing again. "but this stays between us. If I start being compared to a cute cuddly animal the lady's will swarm even more than they do already."

Shepard flicks his nose and Garrus chuckles. "Thats enough out of you. Time for sleep." she moves to get up, but is stopped by a rough, warm, and taloned hand.

"Please stay, Shepard..." he doesn't say more, but his eyes say the rest, _Don't leave me again.._she hears in her thoughts. Her face softens, she doesn't bring to attention the vulnerability that is so apparent in him. "Of course Garrus, I'll stay for my best friend. Now relax and go to sleep." She pushes the chair against the wall at the foot of the bed. She kicks off her boots and props her legs up onto the bed, her crossed ankles ending up next to his head.

Jasmin watches him, till he closes his eyes, then smiles. She gets more comfy then pulls up her omni-tool going through her messages deleting some and replying to others. She was sending a "colorful" message back to the Illusive Man when she's startled by something grabbing her leg. She watches as Garrus, still sleeping, grabs her ankles and pulls them closer and sort of nuzzles them. _Oh my goodness..that is so cute_ she thinks, bringing her hand to her mouth to hide her smile.

When he is deep asleep again she gets back to work ordering supplies for the ship.

After a couple hours have passed, Shepard had finished everything but a little paperwork left in her desk console and rounds. She gets up, slowly prying Garrus's fingers from her leg and stands up. Stretching and moving her joints she leans in and kisses Garrus's forehead. "Sweet dreams Sunshine" she smiles. Shepard grabs her boots, dangling them from her fingers, then walks out quietly, shutting the door behind her.

**Next day...**

Garrus slowly opens his eyes groggily. He unconsciously grabs for an ankle thats not there, then sits up quickly. Her smell lingers, but shes gone.

_I can't believe I asked her to stay. Way to be the man._ he thinks, sighing. As he slowly wakes up a thought pops into his head. "Shit! what time is it?!" he fumbles, but gets his omni-tool on. It reads 06:45. "15 min gah..." he grumbles hopping around trying to get his boots on. Instead of wearing his armor he dons his padded underarmor with his black boots and gloves for his talons. The armor has a turtle neck. The chest, abdominals, thighs, shins, and bi-ceps have a flexible yet protective black material that shadows and mimics the appearance of his actual armor plates. He used this outfit mostly for reconnaissance when he used to be on his own on Omega. It even had a hood, but he didn't need it for a meeting.

He harnesses his black gun holster to his hips and inserts his favorite M-6 Carnifex handgun. He strides out of the battery and quickly makes it to the elevator, pressing the button for **C.I.C**. "All this technology and they still can't make this elevator faster..." he grumbles crossing his arms and tapping his talons.

The elevator doors open and he continues his long striding gate to the Comm. Room. The doors open and he bursts in. "Sorry I'm late" he says holding his hands up in a surrender motion.

Jasmin snaps her head up from her position at the head of the table. Her eyes widen a bit in surprise._ Wow he looks sharp_ her eyes lingering on his wide shoulders and strong legs. She swallows, smiling "Nice of you to join us, we haven't started yet so no worries" and she gestures to her right side.

Garrus, with a little bit more grace, makes his way through the crowd to her side standing tall. Shepard pats his shoulder then turns to the rest of the ships crew.

"Thank you for coming everyone. I have introduced myself to each and every one of you and I hope to get to know you better throughout our missions. I called this meeting to give you an overview on what will be happening in the next few months."

"I have been tasked with creating the best possible ground team that can be mustered together. With this team and the brilliant crew of the Normandy, we will accomplish what noone has before: surviving a trip through the Omega 4 Relay. Once through we will launch an all out assault at the Collector Base. I already have the expertise of both of these operatives over to my left. Mr. Jacob Taylor and Miss Miranda Lawson, whom you know. Joker you also know. He's the best pilot existing as far as I'm concerned."

"Aw shucks Shepard." he says with mock embarrassment and a large smirk.

With a small smile she continues. "Today though I want to introduce the brilliant Dr. Mordin Solus, our resident scientist." Mordin stood and nodded his head in recognition then sat again. "He is devising a way around the seeker swarms as we speak." Pausing, she continues. "Another valuable addition to our team is Mr. Garrus Vakarian to my right here." she clasps his shoulder and they look at eachother in comradery. "He and I go way back. He is an expert technician, sharpshooter, and tactics specialist. He can also kick me around in hand-to-hand which is a feat in and of itself."

He crosses his arms and waves once with one gloved hand "Hi" he says in his deep voice and nods in recognition.

"Alright tall, dark, and handsome." mutters knowing he can hear her. Garrus coughs to hide a laugh.

Shepard continues "In the next few weeks we will be recruiting more crew members. Each of them will be the best of the best. I want to stress that this crew may be Cerberus employed, but I will not tolerate any of you treating any other species disrespectfully. That is not what we are here for."

"This mission is bent on everyone working together to save this universe that everyone coexists in: Humans, Hanaar, Drell, Turian, Krogan, Elcor, Salarians and Asari alike. If I can't trust you to be an extension of my wishes when I am not watching, this mission will hit the dirt...hard, do I make myself clear?"

Shepard paused and glared everyone down. "Yes ma'am!" Everyone said in unison. Jacob even saluted. Miranda nodded, but didn't say a word.

"Thank you for your time everyone. If I have anything else I need to update you on it will most likely be through messages to your terminals. I will be checking in daily so if you have any questions that can wait till then awsome. If not you can send me a message anytime and I'll answer back as soon as I can in person or through a message."

"This journey will be extremely dangerous at times, I wont lie to you, we may sustain losses. Who's to know, but together I have confidence in our ability to get through this without so much as a damn scratch!"

Everyone was patting eachother on the backs and grinning to eachother.

"Ok everyone you are dismissed. May our instincts guide us."

The crew pounded their chest right above their hearts and walked out of the room rowdy and full of spirit.

"And if we should fall, may it be together in fiery glory with guns held high" Garrus added quietly.

Shepard glanced at him with a smile.

"How'd you know that? That is something only the Turian military says." he asked, bringing his eyes level with hers.

"When I was searching for you on the extranet I did some research into the Turian military. You know me, I'm interested in everything. So I was flipping through and I found some recruiting vids and that was a phrase I heard on one of them. It kind of stuck with me I think because it is exactly what I feel."

He looked at her for a second, then shook his head. "You always seem to amaze me when I least expect it." he pauses. "I keep forgetting that you're not like every other human who barely knows anything about their own culture let alone another species."

"Ha! You should know better by now slugger." she says chucking his chin. "Come on. We need to get ready. I was given a new dauss' and we need to pick them up."

"What's your thought on them?" he asks falling in step behind her.

"Well it's a raging biotic we're picking up at a prison." she says punching the elevator button. "Should be interesting. One thing has me worried though. This prison is run by the Blue Suns. Hopefully they value their lives enough to not start any shit while I'm there. I wont hesitate to kick their teeth in to prove a point." she said with her 'I mean business' scowl.

Garrus smirks a little and chuckles. "Is it too much to ask to want to have a little fun Shepard? I kinda hope they start something." he says a little darkly.

The elevator door opens but Shepard turns and grabs his wrist. "Garrus..." she looks into his eyes. A rush of hurt and dark thoughts come unbidden. Before they become too much Shepard quickly drops his wrist. She gasps and steps back looking at her hands. She snaps her head up at him and reads the confusion there. "You and I are having that talk when we get back. No excuses, you hear me?"

He almost becomes defensive, but thinks better of it. "Sure mom, whatever you say." he says hiding behind his sarcasm again.

Shepard walks in and pushes the cargo bay button once Garrus settles in. "EDI please tell Miranda to meet us in the shuttle bay. We will be bording the prison here shortly."

"Of course Commander Shepard."

**Shortly after on Purgatory...**

"And you thought I would just hand over my gun? I'm starting to think all you have is headfringe. Anything up there?" Shepard asks knocking her head with her knuckles.

The turian growls low and menacing. "How dare you! You've insulted me for the last time you stupid human! Rrrrah!" the turian charges

"Let's dance you piece of shit..." she mutters to herself.

Miranda starts moving to help her, but Garrus holds her back. "Don't. She's got this, heh." he laughs a little in anticipation.

Shepard plants her feet watching him charge her like a bull. She steps to the side grabbing his arm and guiding him around her using his momentum. She whirls him around her with so much force from the added momentum that he flys head first into the wall. There a loud clack and he stays still on the floor. "Thanks for the waltz, but I'm more of a fox trot type of gal." and with a mock salute to the unconscious form she walks forward again to enter Purgatory.

"Now can we please just finish this? I'm getting a little bored." she says rolling her head.

"Ma'am I understand you don't want to give your guns up, but my orders are clear. I.."

Just then another turian walks in. "Excuse me, what is wrong here?"

"Oh for crying out loud.." Shepard mutters under her breath. "Hey you, I understand you have a business to run so lets please conclude what you have with me and move on."

"Ah, you must be Shepard. Relinquish your guns and then we can proceed to outprocessing to pick up your parcel."

Shepard points with her thumb behind her "Ya he wanted me to "relinquish" my guns too. Now can we move past this road block because I'm _not_ giving you my guns." She gives him a cold, immovable stare.

After a few seconds of their silent battle of wills he looks away. "Fine. Our facility is _more_ than equipped to handle a few armed individuals. Come with me."

Shepard, Garrus and Miranda fall into step, following him through the long twisting hallways. "This facility is state of the art.." Warden Kuril drones.

After about 5 minutes of him enjoying the sound of his voice they were free to get on with picking up the new crew member and leaving.

"Jeebus...I thought he'd never leave use alone. My god I don't care about your facility. It's an obvious blackmail and extortion racket. Now if we can get out of here without having to get ourselves involved I'd be happy as a clam. Come on let's get Jack and go." She waves them to follow her through the door into a room.

They get to the back of the room and the door opens to an empty shipping container type room. "For the love of all that is holy. This fuckin' turian has cajones the size of the Illusive Man's ego." Shepard looks back at her two cohorts. "Wait for it. He can't stand the suspense. He needs to gloat." She counts out to three on her fingers.

"Shepard I'm afraid you are more valuable as a prisoner than a client. Please walk into the room quietly."

"Goddamn, you really think you have a chance? You've got another thing comin' bucko" she says as she loads her shotgun with a quick jerk of her right arm.

"Take her!" Kuril yells over the P.A.

"Party time guys!"

All three take cover, taking turns shooting over the desks. When the last one dies with a groan, they come out and start at a fast pace out of the door, flanking Shepard like a cloak.

"Let's get Jack and get off this junk heap. Come on" Shepard rounds the corner.

Before Miranda can even say take cover Shepard stalks forward and shoots one of the handful of Blue Suns right in the face with her shotgun followed by another. She reloads, leaping, tucking, then rolling behind two, landing on her knees shooting both in the back of the head. She hears a shuffle behind her and quickly uses her biotics to suspend the last merc in the air, Miranda quickly follows it up with a warp. The merc explodes and gore is flung all over Shepard.

"Ack..ulgh..this has got the be one of the grodiest...ack!" she says flinging some off her hands. "Nothing to be done till the ship, lets get this over with even faster." she turns stalking forward holstering her shotgun and pulling out her M-98 Widow, holding it lazily in her left arm. She punches the button and the door opens to one lone doctor with a handgun.

"Is it worth it? Put your gun down if you value your life." she growls, not even bringing up her gun. The man is freaking out by the time she finishes her sentence, then faints. "Umm...ok?" she asks to noone, walking forward to the main console.

"Wow, little unneccessary scaring the tar outa the wee little man." Garrus drawls.

"What do you mean Velocirooster?" she asks smirking, but keeping her attention on the console shes hacking.

"Hah! What do I..look in the mirror you silly ape. Right now you look like death come to steal lives." he pauses kinda eyeing her. "Especially in all that gore, It's kinda hot actually."

Jasmin turns around leaning on the console, crossing her arms. "Is that so?" She starts slinking forward. "What is it that makes me so hot?" she stops right in front of him looking up into his eyes with her lips apart. She lowers her voice, making it husky "Do I turn you on Vakarian?" she says licking her lips, then biting her lower one.

Garrus stares at her in fascination, never before seeing this side of Shepard before. "Umm..wuh?" he stumbles. The combination of the smell and the gore all over her speaks to something primal in him. He eyes her a for a second longer then shakes his head trying to clear it. "Nice try Shepard. I'm too much turian for you to handle." he says leaning back on one foot and scoffing.

Jasmin barks a hearty laugh "Almost had you there Gar Gar."

"Remember what I've always said. You'll never get me to blush you silly bi-ped." he says shaking his head and going to check out a wall safe.

Shepard, chuckling, turns and continues hacking the information on the console. Miranda walks up, watching her. "You and Garrus are close."

Shepard hesitates for a second "Ya we've been through a lot. I think because it took so much to get through his thick skull that not all humans are the same..."

Garrus scoffs from across the room.

"...We became closer than the average human and turian. We started doing a lot of missions together and eating in the mess, talking till lights out. We realized together, how much alike we are despite the species difference." she pauses thoughtfully. "I think the first time we both realized it was right after a mission. Ashley was bitching about how I never took her, but took the "Stinking Turian" everywhere. Both Garrus and I turned at the same time and said "For crying out loud!" We both looked at eachother and laughed our asses off while Ashley stomped off down the hallway. Epic."

"She was so pissed." Garrus laughs from by the door.

"Needless to say we're best friends now. We work so well together I wonder if we're attached at the hip or something." she chuckles finishing up with the hack in record time.

"I didn't realize you were so good at hacking Commander. I'm impressed." Miranda says disbelievingly.

"Ya I learned everything I know from Tali, the quarian that helped me expose Saren Arterius and was on Freedom's Progress. Her and I became good friends too. I took advantage of her naïveté sooo often." she reminisces smiling to herself. "She's so cute when she's confused, but so intellectually smart. One of the many reasons people need to get there heads out of their asses and work together. We have so much to offer eachother as a species. Anyway, before I go off on a tangent lets get the heck off this hell in space." she finishes, pulling up the override column.

Alarms start sounding off throughout the facility and Shepard starts smiling.

"What have you done Commander if I may ask?" Miranda says dreading her answer.

"Oh, I just opened all the cells in Purgatory."

"What?!"

"Woh skettle (and yes I mean skettle) down, It was the only thing we had time for and be able to get Jack off this prison. That cryo cell down there should be his." she says peering over the console down into the room.

The cryo cell elevated until it was fully open, venting all the vapors out. "Oh my, he's a she, and are those suspenders? She's the only person who has pulled that look off in the history of...ever I think." Shepard chuckles. "Ok guys let's go greet our new.." she interrupted when there's a loud vpboom! "What the..oh shit she blew a hole through those heavy mechs...definately my type of girl. Hurry guys double-time. She can't be harmed."

"Great a psycho-path on our ship. What was the Illusive man thinking..." Miranda mutters.

"What, you thought this would be someone without baggage? Dream on, we're picking her up from a prison. Enough said." Garrus retorts.

Miranda smiles crookedly "Good point."

"Ok you old bitties, hurry up, sewing circle and gossip later." Shepard yells over her shoulder putting on a burst of speed.

They all arrive at the room that's just before the port according to the schematic. Shepard instantly catches the blue force field covered perch in the far corner. "Yay, we made it to the boss level." she mockingly cheers.

"You don't have a chance in hell of getting off this facility alive Shepard." Kuril yells.

"From what I've seen of your "facility" you should be more worried about your own. Not to mention you have me to worry about. As far as I'm concerned-" interrupting by reloading her sniper with a loud click. "I'm more of a threat."

Kuril unconsciously swallows "Men! Get her! Dead or Alive!" he growls out.

"Garrus, Miranda stay close" Jasmin mutters through the ear comms.

Shepard quickly jogs forward at a ground eating pace. They stop for moments, picking off the waves of men coming through the door. Just as Shepard falls back a step, a Heavy Mech walks through the doors.

"You know the drill peeps."

All three whittle the shields and armor down, but Heavy Mech is getting too close and would pin them down soon if they didn't do something in a few seconds. Shepard eyes it down, looks at Garrus, then looks back at the Heavy Mech smirking.

"Garrus follow my lead. We're doing eagle. Miranda just hang back here and keep it occupied ok?"

"Of coarse Commander." Miranda nods.

"Shepard we-" Garrus starts.

"Don't have time. Move with me." she grabs his cowl and pulls him behind cover with her. She watches the Heavy Mech closely waiting for the right moment.

"I don't have time for your doubts. You either trust me or you don't. Got it Garrus?" she watches him, her sharp eyes taking in every facial movement.

"Shepard, I'm sorry that was out of line. It wont happen again."

"See that it doesn't Sunshine." and she squeezes his hand reasuringly.

"Alright get ready. Just like we did those many times before."

"Eagle? I don't remem-woh Eagle eagle? I'm trusting you, but I don't see how that'll help."

"You'll see." she says winking. "Okay...NOW!" Garrus darts out of cover with Shepard close behind. Garrus glances back and nods. Shepard picks up speed and leaps with her hand out. Garrus grabs her hand tightly, whirls her around like a father whirling a child. On the swing around he plants his talons and heals down and throws her using his whole body.

Shepard, keeping her body straight, glides through the air. Just before she hits the Heavy Mech she goes spread eagle, all the while creating a biotic sword. She pulls up then using her speed she punches the sword through the Heavy Mechs head. Just before it explodes she leaps off with all four limbs, twisting and flipping off the back.

Shepard walks through the burning wreckage of the Heavy Mech smirking. "Well that went well. Come on, lets finish this already." she says rolling her eyes.

"Drama queen." Garrus mutters.

"I heard that" Shepard says in a sing song voice.

Kuril whirls to face her "Shepard-"

"Is busy. Please leave a message after the beep. BEEP!"

"Please, I can give you as much money as you want." Kuril starts to beg.

"You're implying I actually want money? How cute." she turns around walking toward the exit and waving over her back. "Bye Kuril."

Kuril gets an ugly look on his face and loads his gun, aiming at Shepard's head.

Garrus hears the click and whirls around quickly taking aim and sniping him through the forehead. When Kuril falls to the ground he sees a large biotically charged pipe that had been hovering just behind him. It drops to the floor with a clatter. He turns toward Shepard and sees her smirking over her shoulder at him and gives him a hearty wink.

"Thanks for having my back Garrus." she says sincerely.

"Always do." he says crinkling his eyes in a small smile.

"Ok let's _please_ get off this place Commander. I'm begging you." Miranda asks.

"Ok ok Miranda lets hope Jack is up ahead 'cause I don't think I have it in me to go find her."

The three of them walk through the door to an angry Jack throwing a guard against the wall with her biotics. Then she spies the cerberus logo on the Normandy SR-2 and blows up, her biotics rippling around her like molten lava.

"Jack what do you plan to do?" Shepard yells to her.

Jack snaps around at the sound of her voice and her mouth snarls in a silent growl. "Who are you and why the fuck would you care? If that's your ship I might just kill you and steal it."

"Jack no matter how powerful you are, and I know just how much, you wont get past me. Besides, I'm here to actually help you."

"Like hell you are. That cerberus logo tells me otherwise. You can go fuck yourself."

"Jack, I am just using cerberus to further my own ends. This galaxy is in horrible danger and me and my crew are going to bring it back from the brink if we can." Shepard pauses then smirks a bit. "I'm offering to be your friend, you don't want to be my enemy."

"They have a way of dying." Garrus adds with a chuckle.

Jack straightens up and seems to take Shepard more seriously. "What's in it for me if I _do_ come with you?"

"Have you been paying attention? Going with me: live. Stay here: die. You're not a moron. Let's just make this easy on all of us and cheez-it the fuck outa here ok?"

Jack stares her down "Alright "Commander" Shepard. Let's get off this shithole, but on one condition: I get access to any and all cerberus databases."

"Absolutely not! The Illusive-"

Shepard rests her hand on Miranda's shoulder looking at her straight in the eyes. She turns back to Jack and smiles. "If that's what you require, then it will be done."

"See that it does." Jack growls, narrowing her eyes at Miranda.

"Ok let's get on the ship you ninnys!" Shepard says exasperated.

"Ok Jack, this datapad is the only way for you to access cerberus databases so don't lose it or break it." Shepard says civily to Jack then crosses her arms.

"Gee golly gosh _mom_, thanks." she snarls.

Pausing she looks up "Shepard, don't think you can be my friend." She laughs bitterly  
"Shit, people more stubborn than you have tried."

"Then you don't know me very well. Cya later Jack. I like our chats." Shepard says as a good bye, smiling and waving over her shoulder.

"Oh fuck off" Jack grumbles lying back on the bed, datapad in hand.

Jasmin starts walking up the steps. "EDI, is Mordin in his lab?"

"Yes he is Commander. Would you like me to inform him you are on your way?"

"No, thank you very much though EDI."

"You are welcome Commander. Signing you out."

One long elevator trip and a short walk later Shepard strolls into Mordin's lab. "Mordin I'm here for my post-mission check up."

"Oh good, just waiting on the results of the pheromones experiment. I think the swarms use the pheromones, that are given off by all reproduction capable sapient life, to detect us. Also, I do think they use a sort of pheromone consisting of 40 different chemical compounds of their own. They release them into the air *breath* Tell the rest of the swarm to attack the being it is attacking."

"Oh kinda like honeybees?"

"Precisely. That also would explain why the collectors don't have to worry about them. I think that they don't have any normal organic functions to speak of. *breath* Don't produce pheramones is my theory.

"Oh then it's just a matter of disabling their way to sense them or to mask ours to get around them"

"Yes, in which case will be very easy. Let's hope that it will be. Quickly now before my spare few minutes are up. Sit there." he says pointing at his desk.

Shepard perches on the edge of his desk chair. "Hi my name is Mordin *breath* I make important discoveries and monumental cures at the drop of a hat." she says trying her best to sound like Mordin.

"Not bad Commander, do you like acting?" Mordin asks as he comes up behind her probing her implant area.

"Not necessarily, I just like to make people smile." she says smiling sheepishly.

"Well, I think you succeed admirably. You are a remarkable person Commander. I am interested to see what you can accomplish. *breath* Statistically better chance than most to succeed. Understand cerberus's reason to bring you back."

"Uh thanks for your confidence in me Mordin."

"Anytime Commander. If we are to be friends then being cold and distant will not be taking a step in the right direction. All clear." he says squeezing her shoulders to emphasize.

Shepard turns returning his affection with a squeeze of his hand. "Thanks again Mordin. What time is a good time for you? Mornings, afternoons, evening?"

"Good question. I'm always busy commander, but if I adjust some experiments I believe I will be available lets say evening around 20:00."

"Ok I'll see you then Mordin. Have a good rest of your day." she says, waving then walking out the door.

When she arrives in the mess hall Shepard pauses taking a deep breath. _It's either now or never._ One more breath and she walks confidently forward to the main battery door. "Hey Garrus? May I come in?"

Garrus darts his head up looking at the door from over his shoulder. He sighs deeply, closing his eyes._ I am not going to enjoy this._

"Yes, come in Shepard." he finally replies, turning back to his console.

"Garrus I'm ready for our talk." she greets him, sitting on his cot. "Now first-off, what happened that made you think you had to go to Omega?" she asks sitting straight with her hands folded in her lap.

Garrus turns around leaning on the console, crossing his arms. "Why do you want to know? Why do I need to say anything?" he says defensively with a slight growl.

"Because I care deeply for you. We have been through so much together. I know you're hiding something from me. The signs are there and I need to know what it is. You're my best friend and by golly I would be a horrible one in return if I didn't say something."

"And why do you need to say anything?" she continues. "Because something is eating away at you and has left you hollow inside. Your joking and sarcasm can only fool someone else, not me. Now please talk to me Garrus." Shepard said softly.

Garrus had been staring at his feet the whole while. He was truelly afraid to talk about his thoughts and what he went through when she died. He was taught to never have this kind of weakness inside. The weakness that pushed him to get as far away from a failure. Not being able to face it like the man he thought he was. Not being able to convince anyone of Shepard's warning, that was his downfall. Garrus had tried so damn hard to pick up her mantle, but no one can replace her. He had failed her royally and there was nothing more his broken soul could do.

Garrus lifts his eyes, but not his head. "Shepard do you know what you're asking me to do?" he asks softly. "You're asking me to relive every moment since the day I was told you'd died."

After taking a deep steadying breath he continued. "Shepard..they told me you'd died from exposure, Joker saw you spaced. It took me days to accept it. You had come back from the brink so often how could one ship bring you down? And your funeral?" he had to stop and control a sob that wanted to escape. "That was the worst funeral I'd ever attended. All your friends, the people who loved you for you, were there in force. All the speeches and memoriams... it didn't touch the tip of the iceburg of all you'd accomplished. I didn't even want to have to prove to any of those hypocrits how unworthy they were of you. They didn't deserve the energy spent."

Garrus walked over and sat hard in his rolling chair. He sank his elbows onto his knees, cradling his head in his hands. "Sheperd...I could only bare to leave one thing for you: one single vine of Jasmin. I wouldn't dare part with anything of yours, they were too precious."

Garrus went on to explain how he tried to get the council, or anyone for that matter, to listen to his pleas. Noone would listen to his forwarded warning that the reapers were on their way and they needed to be ready. The law and the people who he should be able to rely on had failed him for the last time. Omega meant bending the rules to his will so he booked a ticket on the earliest possible shuttle.

"It's hard to admit, but I went there to die Shepard. For the first time in my life, I felt no hope for the future. You had become too central to my life's purpose that when you died it's like my life spun out of control. Like a ship without a pilot."

"I started off seeking out danger, hoping something or someone would put me out of my misery. If I saved lives or stopped crime from happening it was only a bi-product."

"Eventually people begged to join me. People who were affected by Omega's crime and were glad to help make it a safer place. So I banded up with them and we became a deadly strike force against crime on Omega. I should have known better than to get my hope up. Everything I care about has always been a failure."

Garrus brings his head up and stares, haunted, into her eyes. "I was betrayed by the person closest to me, Sidonis. I made obvious enemies of the merc groups and it was only a matter of time before they got desperate." He sighed heavily looking down. "My whole team was massacred while I was led to a trap. I got away without a scratch as usual, but I arrived back in time to say sorry to the last two living for failing them so miserably. Shortly after, they died in my arms...everything that happened later you know."

It had been almost unbearable for Shepard to just sit and listen. She understood how hard it is to talk about something so life altering.

When he was talking about the things he had gone through since her death, it took all of her being not to sob into her own hands.

She looked up at him, searching for his eyes. When he refused to look up she outstretched her hand and gently lifted his chin with her fingers. "Garrus I have to say this, just this once: I never intended to die and goddamn it.." she stopped, holding in her emotions. "I tried my hardest to survive. You...alone..without _me_...it was the very last heartrenching thought that ran through my head. My lungs were bursting and I had lost my sight and I was in darkness, but all I could think of was my Sunshine."

Shepard grabbed him in a desperate hug, clinging to him with all her strength. "Garrus I'm right here and I will never leave you again." she whispered in his ear. "and no I'm not just being cocky. I am the puppetmaster of my own life and damnit all..fuck the fates for ever thinking I could be killed. Daft bitches.." she sighs and softly caresses his neck.

As if awakening he realizes Shepard is there, hugging him as hard as her little body can. In shock, he brings up his arms to encircled her, protect her. Her scent was so familiar and comforting. He nudged her face with his own, caressing it, and transferring his scent onto hers. "Oh Shepard, I've missed you so much..." he sighs.

"Funny thing, the first thing I remember after the black void when I died was you and I in a meadow. We were lying next to eachother and you were holding me. I told you 'I miss you' then the dream ended, repeating itself over and over from then on till I woke." she pulls back from him removing the mist that had appeared below her eyelids. "It reminded me of that last day at the citadel. Funny huh?" she says getting to her feet.

Shepard reaches for Garrus's hand and looks at his face to find him staring holes into her eyes. "What did you say?" he asks, the shock apparent on his face.

Shepard pulls at his hand and he stands. "Just that I think I started dreaming, about the time they had revived me. You and I in a meadow. Nothing special just I wanted you to know you were the first thing I thought of when I lived again. You've retained your short term memory haven't you? Hate to say you might have dementia." she says lightly joking.

Garrus walks over and grabs her face lightly between his talons and forces her to look straight into his eyes. "In a meadow with glistening green grass, beautiful flowers all over, and the sun shining and warming us?"

"Yes...how do you know that?" her eyes dancing between his trying to understand.

"I had the same dream...the exact same one." he breaths.

"What does this mean?" she asks. As if on queue with her question her eyes roll back in her head as she has a flash of Garrus's memories. Him waking up with her scent still in the air. Simple things that seem coincidence seeming to happen in relation to his dream. Then him seeing her through his eyes in the dream.

Shepard jerks and her senses come back to reality. The stress causing her breath to hitch and speed up.

"Shepard! Shepard!" Garrus is shaking her, attempting to wake her from her vision. "Shepard!? What's wrong?"

"I...just" she breaths a steady breath. "I had a vision of your memories." she looks him in the eyes. "I don't know what happened when I was brought back or what the hell is wrong with my implant, but it's causing me to have visions from touch."

"Wait..what?" Garrus asks sitting heavily on his chair.

"I have been ignoring it since I first noticed it. I think I'll bring it up to Mordin tonight. He can help me theorize why this is happening and if it's a danger."

"Ask him about us having the same dream that seems to coincide with you being revived." he pauses. "And I'm going to keep looking for Sidonis with all my energy."

"Garrus I really need you're help for this..."

Garrus looks torn for a second then looks away. "I have to do this Shepard. You can't stop me. This is the only thing I can do for my team. They deserve revenge for their deaths, it's the least that bastard deserves!" he growls loudly, pounding his fist on the wall for emphasis, temper flaring.

"Garrus are you sure you want to kill him? I don't think.."

"Don't tell me what to do Shepard. You've never had someone betray you."

"That doesn't.."

"I don't want to hear whatever sappy words of help you were about to spout. They don't matter because I'm killing Sidonis and if I have my way it will be slow and painful." he says with an ugly predatory snarl on his face.

Shepards face fell, he was hurting so much and he wont let her get through to him. She abates her disagreements just this once to give him time. "If that's the way you want it, I'll leave you to your plans Garrus. Understand though, you're walking down a slippery path that is hard to come back from. I know you Garrus, this isn't you."

"What do you want from me Shepard? This is me and this is what I want. Just don't get in my way." he growls turning around shutting the door in her face.

"I'll miss you Sunshine." she whispers staring at the door then slowly, sadly she walks to the elevator.

Garrus hears her last whisper clearly through the door. Shock at what he's just said to her runs through his head. With a small sob he slams his head in his hands, wanting to rip his own face off if it would only take back the ugly things he said. If only...

...

**As always, please leave comments! I love reading them! Thank you for reading and take care!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Sunshine:**

**Hey everyone! I'll keep it short. Hope you enjoy the third installment! Comment away! Thank you for reading!**

**Disclaimer:**** I don't own these lovely characters of Mass Effect, wish I did. :P**

**...**

Shepard leaned against the back of the elevator, crossing her arms and letting out a long, deep sigh.

"Will he ever understand..or will he always feel that revenge is the answer even after all the times I've proven that theory wrong?" she asks to noone in particular.

Gently she runs her fingers from her forehead back into her hair, sighing again deeply. She sucks in one more life giving breath, holds it, then lets it go. She slowly opens her eyes, at peace. "Whatever he decides, I will be there for him no matter what, but I will not guide his way this time. He'll realize what he's needed to all along, only this time on his own." she says to herself, frowning slightly. "They always have to do it alone."

The elevator dings, sharply stabbing through her thoughts. _Back to business as usual_ she thinks with a wry smile. Shepard stalks out of the elevator through C.I.C to the labs, swishing through the door.

"Hey Mordin, can I run something by you?" she asks Mordin as she glides through the door.

"Of course Commander. Always here to have my brain picked. *Breath* Pick away." he says gesturing towards her.

"Well I was just talking with Garrus and something extraordinary happened. Mind you, this has happened before, but I just brushed it off as stress. Anyway, if I touch a persons' hands, arms, or shoulders I see glimpses of memories or thoughts of said person."

There was a long pause while Mordin absorbed what she had revealed to him.

"Ok, so through touch you are having visions of the person's thoughts and memories?"

"Sometimes I hear immediate thoughts when I am, physically, close to them."

"Hmmm" is all she hears, but she can almost visibly see his mental wheels turning, calculating.

Finally he seems to arrive at something. "Well, this is not something I have run across in my research before, but I will find what I can on this subject and get back with you the moment I can give you another answer than this one. *Breath* Very puzzling." he mused, placing his index finger on his forehead. "Also, although we were initially going to have our little "hang out" hours as you call them, some of those nights I would actually like to run some experiments with this newfound ability. *Breath* Quite important."

"Whatever it takes Mordin. It doesn't scare me, but I don't like something I can't control or that I know nothing about."

"Very understandable Shepard. I will do what I can between my other duties."

"Thank you Mordin, from anyone else that wouldn't mean a lot, but from you it means a great deal." she says grasping his shoulder then squeezing. Letting go she waves "See you around Mordin."

Shepard stops suddenly thinking of a question she had wanted to ask and swings around. "Mordin, kinda off subject, but how would a cat stand up to space life?"

"Well, if they are exposed to life on a ship as a kitten they tend to adapt easily. Cats have been known as good companions on vessels in general."

"Ok thank you. Any implications interspecies-wise if they were exposed to one."

"Not that I can think of Shepard."

"Great, shore leave initiated. I needed to get to the Citadel to pick up a Kasumi Goto anyway. Joker!"

"Yes Commander?"

"Ah, eavesdropping as usual."

"Oh don't be that way Commander, a man has to keep his mind occupied as well as his hands."

"And that conversations over."

"What did I...Oh you dirty Commander you. Touché." he says laughing.

"Touché indeed. Listen I need you to set a course for the Citadel please."

"Aye aye Commander" he answered curtly before disconnecting.

"EDI?"

"Yes Commander Shepard."

"Can you please connect me to the intercom."

"Of coarse Commander, connecting you now."

"Attention Normandy crew. Our next destination will be the Citadel and as such I will be starting shore leave on arrival. Please arrange anything that needs to be taken care of in the two days there. We will not get another chance for awhile. Hope everyone has a good night cycle. See you tomorrow. Shepard out."

"Good night Commander" EDI replied before cutting out.

"Ok Mordin I'm going to get some rest I'll see you tomorrow. Make sure to get your hour or two in ok?"

"I surely will. Good night Shepard."

Shepard walks out of the lab with a large yawn. "Night Kelly."

"Night Shepard, sleep tight."

"Don't let the spacebugs bite." Shepard says with a wink as the elevator doors shut.

Pushing the Captains Cabin button with her toe she slowly wound herself down for the night. Moments later she pads down to her bed stripping as she walks. Once she's down to her thong she pulls out her silk tank and puts it on. She relishes the cold slithering feeling against her skin, fully signaling, to her, its time for bed. Climbing in she pulls the sheets up to her chin and wiggles her back and stretches her feet. Before her last muscle is relaxed she is fast asleep with dark endless space speeding on above her.~*

**...**

**Sorry this was so short, but it felt like a good place to end a Chapter. Thank you for reading! Peace!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Sunshine:**

**Hope everyone is doing very well! As always thank you for reading! Peace! **

**Disclaimer**: **I do not own these lovely characters of Mass Effect,** **wish I did :)**

**...**

"Nothing different? Well that's good news so to speak." Shepard responds to Mordin after her morning check-up.

"Shepard I have done some extensive digging. *breath* You are the only case that has ever existed." Shepard lets out an exasperated huff. " But, I will continue our check-ups as usual. They will be documented for future reference. They might be help for future people in the same circumstance."

"I like that it could be of help for other people going through the same as me." smiling a little, then she turns to Mordin. "Is there anything else you needed?"

"No, I think we're done for now."

"Alright, cya round." Shepard says cheerfully and hops off the table and strides through the doors into the C.I.C.

Walking over to the railing she leans on it facing a certain Miss Chambers. "Hey Kelly, sock it to me. What's the news today?"

"Hey Shepard! Not really much to say. How's everything with Garrus? I imagine you guys had a lot to catch up on."

"He's doing ok considering, but I would like you to keep an eye on him for me. I don't want him to know you are though, so nothing drastic. I'll still be talking to him, but right now he's dealing with some deep stuff and he wont let me in yet. Just make sure he doesn't do anything stupid like go off on his own. If you see him leave by himself or seem like he's going to do anything reckless please message me immediately, got it?"

"Yes, of coarse Shepard. I understand."

"Thank you Kelly. If that's all I'm going to start my rounds. Talk to you later Chambers."

"Cya Shepard" Kelly responds then turns to her console again.

Shepard walks towards the cockpit "Matthews, Hadley. How is everything this morning?"

Garrus huffs out a yell with every punch he delivers to the now decrepit heavy bag. With one last burst of energy he round house kicks it. He does it with such force that it flys off the hook, hitting the side wall with a loud "THDONG!"

He snarls then roars loudly, sounding like a large feral beast. He drops to his knees, holding his head in his large, taloned hands.

"Mr. Vakarian, it might not be wise to destroy the equipment."

"Oh shut up EDI!"

"Hey leave the AI alone, she's just doing her job." Shepard interrupts winking at the camera.

"Shepard? Go away and leave me alone I'm not in the mood for your "pep" talks right now." Garrus growls getting up and turning his back to go retrieve the heavy bag.

"Oh don't you worry. You made your point the last time we spoke." Garrus flinches and stops walking.

"Even if we aren't friends you are a part of my crew. I am obligated to check on you at rounds. So with that said, how is everything going? How are the guns calibrating? Do they need anything to improve them?"

Garrus turns around and looks at her for awhile, both of them maintaining a tense stare. Garrus finally turns around and walks over to the punching bag and picks it up. "I'll forward the upgrades to your console as soon as I'm back in the battery."

"Thank you Vakarian, if you need anything else just message me. Have a great day." Shepard returns without feeling. She turns and walks over to the elevator getting in and pressing the button.

As the doors close she allows her face to morph into the reflection of her heart. One tear escapes her right eye and drops in a single line down her face.

Garrus walks over and drops the broken bag on the ground. He stares at it without really seeing it. _She hasn't called me Vakarian...ever._ _Have I lost her?_

"I just need to kill Sidonis and everything will fall into place. I know it will." he says to himself. A very cruel, toothy turian grin mutates onto his face. "He will pay for what he's done." Garrus mutters under his breath with venom.

Finally they arrived at the Citadel on the second day. Every one of the crew was abuzz with excitement. Some talked of what who was doing with whom and how wasted they were going to get. Some were talking about their families and letters that needed to be sent.

Shepard walks into the C.I.C smiling, affected by the excitement like everyone else. She walks down the line waiting to get off the ship grasping shoulders, patting backs and all the while she's smiling fiercely.

"Everyone be safe please and as always have fun." at the last word everyone raised a cheer.

"Are you coming tonight to Dark Star Commander?" Kelly yelled.

"I might make an appearance." she said with a smirk. "Now you kids stay outa trouble ya hear!" she shouts over her shoulder as she walks away, waving.

Most of the crew answered with a subdued "Yes mom". Shepard turns around and lifts an eyebrow then points her two fingers at her eyes then at them "I'm watching you." she says with a slight smirk.

Turning, after a fews scattered laughs, she walks into the elevator pressing the Captains Cabin button. "EDI who remains on the ship?"

"Miss Lawson, Dr. Solus, Mr. Moreau, Mr. Vakarian, and Dr. Chakwas are still remaining Commander."

"Thank you EDI. By the way did you find the songs I have been looking for?"

"Yes Commander I placed them in your media files and you can access them from your wall console if you wish to listen to them."

"Oh, thank you very much EDI"

"You're Welcome Commander. Signing you off."

Shepard walks over to the wall media and lights console. She scrolls down through her playlists smiling when she reaches her favorite mix list. The thrumming beats of the chillstep compilation fills her room.

An hour later she's finished replying to her messages and writing her reports. She leans back into a long stretch over the back of the chair then stops suddenly as an idea forms in her head. _Why haven't I asked Miranda about the correlation with my implant and the symptoms?_

"Mordin's prolly already asked, but I might jog her memory. Who knows? Hey EDI, is Miranda in her office?"

"Yes Commander, would you like me to inform her of you coming to see her?"

Shepard barks a laugh "I guess this time I will. Even though it was hilarious seeing her fall on the floor. Tell her I'll be down in a minute."

"Of coarse Commander. Anything else?"

"No, thank you EDI. You spoil me. I'm getting lazy. I love not having to run around to communicate with people or find them."

EDI pauses, processing the last statement.

"I'm only doing what I was installed to do Commander. Spoil is not a relevant word."

"Alright, alright, thank you EDI"

"You are welcome as always Commander. Signing you off."

Shepard hops up and walks to the elevator and pushes the crew deck button.

"What should I name my new little kitten? Oscar?...Oliver? Hmmm..." she taps a finger against her cheek thinking while the elevator slowly drops to the right level with a steady, comforting humming.

"I will just have to name it when I meet them. It's decided." shes states matter-of-factly.

The doors ding open and she walks out glancing at the kitchen, hesitating. With a smile she stroles over to the kitchen intent on a hot cup of Chai tea.

A few moments later she leaves the kitchen with two mugs of Chai at home in her capable hands. Making her way over to Miranda's office she walks through the doors.

"I come bearing a peace offering." she says tentatively setting one mug on Miranda's desk.

"Come in Commander what can I help you with?" she hears from behind the wall.

"Well I wont bug you for long I just wanted to ask you something." Shepard walks over and sits on the chair by the window.

Miranda walks out from behind the wall wearing some grey yoga pants and a black hoodie. "Shoot" she replys sitting in her desk chair and turning it towards Shepard.

"One, it's nice to see you at ease for once." Shepard says smirking.

"I know how to be comfy on a day off like every other woman." she says laughing daintily with a small smile.

"Well put" Shepard says joining in a laugh. "Second, it popped in my head to ask you about what the correlation between my biotics going wild and my implant. Since you were director of the Lazerus Project I figured you might have more insight than Mordin, even with his vast knowledge."

"Mordin has come to me already and I really had nothing to tell him."

"Where did the implant come from though?"

"It was a prototype that we had tested before. Funny enough it originated from technology found in a prothean ruin. After careful research and testing we figured out that it was a biotic amplifier. So we replicated it and tested it with many human biotics before we found out the extent of what it could do. If you'd like I can send you everything to do with only that area of the project."

"Wouldn't Cerberus be angry if I got a hold of information so sensative?"

"Not in this instance because it's not exactly a secret device. They have been found before and recognized as biotic amplifiers, but the only differences is that we have put it to use on an existing species. The mechanics of how we adapted it will not be present in what I will send you, but I will send you logs and non-sensative notes."

"Ok sounds fair." Shepard shrugs and takes a sip.

Miranda follows suit taking a small taste, then takes a longer sip. "Mmmm. Commander what is this?"

"Don't tell me you've never had Chai tea before?"

"Chai tea? Nope. This is delicious. Where did you get this?"

"There is a delightful tea shop owned by a Drell named Velarz and a Human named Sara. They seem to collect any and all tea from everywhere. They even have some creations from Earth, Palaven, Kahje and other planets. I try to get something different everytime I'm in the Citadel. I haven't been in awhile so I grabbed some chai tea on Omega"

They sat there in peace for a moment and finished their cups.

"I liked this Shepard. We should do this again soon."

"As long as I bring this tea right?" she says smirking.

"Well duh." she says grinning.

Shepard gets up and takes Miranda's empty mug. "Well better be hitting the dusty trail. Have a good shore leave. Maybe I'll see you cutting loose at Dark Star." she says winking.

"Hah, not in this lifetime or any other Shepard. Talk to you later." she says waving as the doors shut.

"Mission: Success." Shepard mutters to herself as she cleans the cups in the sink.

**...**

**Thank you everyone for reading! I love writing this story. It's fun for me to make it up as I go. Speaking of which. I need some ideas for the name of the kitten and what sex it should be. I know it'll be a spunky, courageous, yet gentle kitten and that's as far as I got. Will be looking forward to your thoughts! Hope everyone takes care and stays safe! Peace!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Hey everyone! I'm planning my own wedding so I'm sorry for the delay. Enjoy!**

**Sunshine**

**Chapter 5**

**...**

When Shepard gets back to her cabin she slips into some black leggings, black combat boots, and a loose gray cotton tank. On her way out she grabs her hip holster and her black cropped jacket.

As she walks by Kelly Chambers she salutes her casually. "I'll be right back Kelly just going to go pick up Kasumi Goto. It said to meet her at the security gate, oddly enough"

"Ok Commander, be safe. I don't like you going out alone, but if its only to the security gate..."

"I don't find the idea of you going out there alone a good idea either Commander." Garrus says as he walks out of the elevator.

Shepard hesitates and looks him in the eyes. "Well a velocirooster is always a helpful tag along. Are you volunteering yourself Vakarian?" she says with a smirk.

"If you don't mind, that is. You're a walking distaster and I want front row seats." he says, his mandables widening in a small smile. "Besides, humans are quite squishy. You need a tough, scaly turian to protect you."

"As if.." she grumbles. "Well if you must. Ugh, how droll." she says with mock disgust. "Come on we have work to do." she turns and walks toward the gate.

Shepard and Garrus stand in decontamination quietly, but Garrus breaks the silence. "I'm still angry with you...but I still have your six."

Shepard turns and looks up at him "I've always been here for you, you silly turian. You just isolated yourself per your own choice. I can't force ideals on you, but do me a favor and at least _think_ about them this time?" she says turning again and shaking her head.

"Ya just call me a regular brick wall." he says

Shepard chuckles.

"Now where would our grand high thief be?" Shepard grumbles, shifting onto the other hip for the millionth time.

Garrus notices her hip shifting to the otherside. "Doesn't that hurt?"

"What?"

"You shifting your hip so far over like that?" he says pointing.

"Not really I technically can stretch it further." she says suddenly bumping her hip on his.

He watches her hip stretch back swallowing quickly. "That's very...interesting." he says quickly looking away.

"Does that make you squeemish Mr. Vakarian?" she says lifting an eyebrow. "This calls for something special then. I'll have to whip out something from back in the day. I was, and still am, very flexible."

Shepard backs off a bit, facing Garrus, and starts a front walkover. Halfway through she extends her legs in a split, then finishes the walkover. She ends with a flourish then looks at Garrus "How bout that?"

Garrus's mandables are splayed, mouth wide open and his eyes could have been popping out of his head. "Wha-wha-ho-how did you do that?"

"First, close your mouth your catching flies. Second, I used to practice gymnastics with my friends on Mindoir. It's a sport where.."

A loud crackling interrupts her and the column ad right next to them sparks to life.

"Commander Shepard, enter the password and receive a free gift."

Shepard laughs.

"Got problems with collectors? Try Kasumi's credit services."

"Oh now that's good. I have a feeling we are going to get along just fine." Shepard says, smirking at the ad.

"Please enter your password Commander Shepard."

"You had me at hello...?"

Chuckling can be heard

"Come on down we can go get you settled into the Normandy."

"Oh drat, how'd I give myself away?" she says jumping down then decloaking.

"A little guessing aaaand I saw a small puff of dust up top."

"Ha, fair enough. Come on Shep lets go" she says resting her arm on Shepards shoulder. "We have some catching up to do."

"Come on Garrus!" Shepard shouts over her shoulder as her and Kasumi focus on eachother, becoming thick as thieves (no pun intended).

"So I jumped down on top of him and he sunk right through the top layer of hardpack till he was chest deep in snow. I walked around and took the datapad right out of his hand, bowed, then walked away. Easiest job I've ever done."

"You were cloaked when you jumped down right?" Shepard says pulling back from leaning on the mess table.

"Yes, wouldn't want him to see my lovely face now would I?" she says with mock vanity.

Shepard gets up and walks over to the kitchen starting another pot of boiling water. "Care for another cup of green tea?" she says looking back at Kasumi.

"Yes please. This time I will try the honey and lemon that you added to yours."

"Ok, coming right up."

"The crew seems pretty tight knit and very, _very_ diverse. Not really Cerberus's style from my research."

"Ya they kinda gave me full reign over who I recruit. Surprisingly though they are the ones who gave me the dossiers for everyone." Kasumi made a disbelieving noise. "Shocked me also." she said chuckling.

"So how do you know Garrus?"

"Straight to the point I see? You don't want to skirt around the issue for a few days then break it to me subtley?" she says smiling. She sits down at the table and handing Kasumi her mug.

"If I can help it I will always be forward. Just because I'm a thief doesn't mean I have to apply the same principals to my everyday life, at least not all the time." she says with a cheshire grin.

"Fair enough" Shepard laughs motioning to back off with her hands. "Detailed version or summarized?"

"Is that even a good use of your breath? Hah! What do you think?" Kasumi says crossing her arms.

"Alright, alright. I knew better" Shepard smiles.

"Well, we served together on the original Normandy. Through teamwork and talking together often we became close friends."

"Well, that's not vague or anything." Kasumi laughs. "I'll just fill in the details myself I guess."

"Oh goodness, no thank you" she gasps with feigned horror

Kasumi chuckles "How did you meet?"

"Well that was back when we were just trying to fill in the blanks about Saren..."

All the while, Garrus is listening in on her tell their story while he calibrates the Thanix. He chuckles and sighs over the crazy things they did in the early days. Then she got to the part about Dr. Saleon.

"I could tell Garrus wanted to kill him outright, but I wasn't going to let him. I know he was thinking 'who are you, the perfect Commander Shepard, to tell me I can't kill him'. Ya maybe I haven't killed anyone unless they gave me no other choice, but I've seen what it can lead to."

"Ya some people aren't able to kill someone like that and not have it affect them. It changes them entirely most of the time"

"Exactly, I've seen too many people become mean and uncaring of life and lose the ability to give mercy. He is too much of a good person for me to allow that to happen. Mind you, he thinks he's nothing special, but he truely has a deeply caring heart hidden beneath all the sarcasm and smirking." Shepard laughs. "He's gotten damn good at hiding it, but good 'ol Commander Shepard can see through most guises."

Garrus scoffs, she's not getting away unscathed for talking about him like this. He felt betrayed.

"You're observant, I'll give you that. So from there you beat Saren blobbity blah blah blah."

"Pretty much. After that we were heroes, for all the help that was. Daft pinheads still don't believe us about the reapers. So I was sent on a daft mission, shot down by some daft collectors, and I daft died."

"Wait, now that one I thought was a rumor."

"I wish. I got brought back from death by Cerberus through lots of upgrades." She sighs, continuing. "It sucks not being emotionally affected by me dieing so to speak. I don't remember much accept the excruciating pain I experienced before dieing. Two year blank spot in my memory."

"Everyone who cared about me went through a lot of crap because of my death. I always wished I could go back in time, you know. Maybe tell them hey, no worries I'll be back in two years."

"Anyways, Garrus became this amazingly talented vigilante while I was dead and we rescued him after a team member backstabbed him and the rest of his team."

"Hmm this seems like another "Dr. Saleon" in the making."

"Ya except its personal this time. I wont go into detail for his sake considering he prolly heard everything we've said out here if he's in the battery. He has some things to work out, but we're here for eachother. Friends till the end."

Garrus, through barely contained rage, stops listening and shuts his console down. _I hope Kasumi is leaving soon for her sake_ he thinks while finishing his last algorithm.

"That's kind of refreshing to hear nowadays. Not many people know the value of a personal relationship anymore. They seem to think their gadgets will keep them happy. Ah well, it's the way of the world and more prominant people than us have tried to change things." Kasumi stretches luxuriously and yawns. "Time for bed. Thank you again for the tea and the company. It's been awhile since I've had a friend. Night Shep." she says waving and walking around the corner.

"Night Kasumi" she says settling in with her omni-tool, finishing her tea.

As the observatory doors slip closed on Kasumi, the battery doors open and Garrus strides through.

"Ahh Garrus you just missed the party."

"Fashionable late as always, besides its not a party without me." he says easily slipping the sarcastic facade over his anger.

"Hmm you do have a point." she says smirking

Garrus sits across from her "Shepard I heard everything you said to Kasumi."

"Oh you did? Go figure." she says sarcastically.

"I am willing to think about what you're proposing. I see now where you're coming from and you're right, but not completely correct. I know you think this is like Dr. Saleon and the same factors apply, but you could not be more wrong. _Because _it's "personal" like you said, everything changes."

"Not really Garrus. I know that emotions change everything, but logically the equation is the same. Your anger and passion are getting in the way. You need to learn to check your emotions when making a life or death decision. It's the only way you c-"

"Check _my_ EMOTIONS?!" Garrus yells at her, getting up from his seat and moves inches from her face. "This coming from the emotionless bitch _Commander_ Shepard, the all knowing. You wouldn't know a fucking emotion if it slapped you in the face."

Garrus backhands Shepards face hard enough that her head turns to the side and Shepard drops her cup of tea on the floor. All that can be heard is the clatter and ring of the mug hitting the hard floor.

Shepards red streaked face slowly turns back to face Garrus. Her blue eyes are wide and filled with a cold fire. She stares him down and keeps glaring into his eyes as she stands from her seat, slow and controlled. Garrus's rage blinds him to his danger and he snarls at her.

"You have soo much pent up _anger_ hot shot?" She says coolly, suddenly grasping his neck and digging her nails in. Garrus gasps for air as she calmly chokes him. "Let's do this motherfucker. You, me, grapple, _now."_ she growls out low. She rips off her hand from his neck then grasps his cowl, dragging him to the elevator.

Kasumi uncloaks as they disappear into the elevator. "Guys will never learn." she mutters knowingly to herself. "I better make sure they don't kill eachother" she says then quickly makes for the ducts and shimmies down to the cargo bay.

The elevator doors shut and Shepard shoves Garrus to the other side against the railing. She glares maleviolently at him from across the elevator. Her hands are in a permanant claw-like position, the scariest part being her calm breathing.

Garrus recovers and snaps his head around and lunges for her, but is answered with a foot shooting up and under his chin. He staggers to the other side wondering where the hell her foot came from.

"You will wait till we get to the ring you tub of shit." Shepard barks at him.

Garrus snarls at her, spittle flying.

Finally the elevator makes it to the shuttle bay and Shepard stalks out of the elevator stripping off her jacket, tank, boots, and socks. She wads them and throws them across the room. Slowly she drops into the splits, stretching her toes and then leaning forward.

Meanwhile Garrus rips off his armor as quickly as he can. Finally he's down to his underarmor and stands across from Shepard, a heaving mass of anger.

Kasumi arrives just in time to see Garrus get in place. _Phew! I thought I wouldn't make it in time._ She settles in to watch from behind a crate.

Slowly Shepard stands on her feet in only her leggings and sports bra. She looks at him evenly, the fire still quite alive in her eyes, but more calm, steady. "Are you ready to get your ass handed to you Garrus? No practice rounds, this is for real and I'm playing for keeps. I don't need my biotics to kick your plated ass"

"I hope so _Commander_ because I'm going to rip out your limbs one by ONE!" he yells charging her and throwing the first punch.

Shepard, ready for it, blocks his bone shattering punch with one forearm and redirecting it to the side. "Oh, forgot I have reinforced bones now Vakarian?" she says answering his punch with a punch of her own to his face. She jumps back dodging a punch then roundhouse kicks the otherside of his face.

Garrus staggers and wipes blood from his jaw. He changes tactics and puts up his hands, circling her. He jabs at her several times while she lazily dodges them. He sneaks in an uppercut then tries sweeping her legs out from under her, but she quickly flips backward.

She recovers into a loose defensive position with her hands in lazy fists. "Gonna have to be _much_ faster than that Vakarian." she taunts, smirking.

Garrus moves in slowly with his fists loosely on his sides, a low growl like a tiger can be heard deep within his chest. Quick as lightning he explodes forward and launches rapid swiping motions with his talons extended.

Shepard ducks and dodges through a long series of vicious swings. She ducks another swipe, coming up grabbing his shoulders and kneeing him brutally in the stomach.

Garrus curls in on himself with a forced whine. He backs off recovering his balance and darts back in with more intensity than before.

Shepard avoids all but a few punches, kicks, and sweeps he dishes out collecting a few scratches that lazily seep blood. Her breathing has hiked up quite a bit. "Mmmmm this is a nice workout G-rex. You look a little outa breath, do you need a break?" Shepard catches him off guard in a moment of negligence, sweeping his feet out from under him.

Shepard brings his arms up above his head with a slam and sits on his chest, using her other arm to keep his neck restrained.

"Surrender Vakarian." she growls out while he struggles violently.

"Ne-v-" he can't get it out because of her forearm. In frustration he roars and lifts his legs and rolls her over and pins her in turn.

Kasumi starts to jump over the crate to stop them, but seeing Shepard's confident smirk she smiles and ducks back down.

"Never!" he gasps over her, heaving with exertion.

"Hmm this would be kinda sexy any other time, but right now we are in _quite_ the predicament. You can't seem to gain the upper hand eh?"

"I'M the one who has you pinned and you don't have the strength to lift me if you tried." he snarls.

"Ya, but what if I can get you to do it for me?" she says lifting an eyebrow. She starts to move the hand she had snuck up behind his knee in the few seconds she was pinned.

All the rage drains from his face in shock. "Noffffff..Ha! No fair!" Garrus says wriggling away from her and rolling onto his back laughing loudly and gasping for breath. His anger completely deflated.

Kasumi laughs quietly to herself as she cloaks and walks into the still open elevator. _Never would have thought it would have ended so quickly. A turian...ticklish? Whoda thunk?_ she muses, giggling, as the elevator doors _sssssnick_ closed.

Shepard laughs and rolls over to him, placing both her arms on either side of his head. "Hello, Garrus Vakarian home?" she says smiling largely at him, all her teeth sparkling, cheeks flushed.

Garrus widens his mandables in a toothy grin. His talon glides across her cheek, chucking her chin then he falls back in exaustion.

"Sooo is this all it takes to stop you from being a ball of angry turian?" she says chuckling.

"Well,sort of.. it's a turian thing and before you say anything, I know that's not a sufficient answer for you. So lemme put this plainly: Turians need to fight to release stress."

"Well, thats better than I thought."

"Did I mention sex was a good stress reliever for turians?"

"Okay aaaand nowww there's the weirdness I was looking for." she sighs.

Garrus laughs bitterly. "I can't seem to stop fucking things up. I will be making it up to you till...forever. You know that right?" he groans in mock disdain.

Shepard leans in and lingeringly kisses his scar "You owe me longer than that Garrus Vakarian."

Her breath running over his cheek makes a small shiver run along his spine.

She lifts back up with a shit-eating grin covering her face. "I also get to lord this over your head sluggo. I might even be calling in some favors soon."

Garrus let's his head drop back to the floor with a THUNK. "Nooo! Please don't say I have to spend more time with you. Woe is me!"

Shepard sits up all the way laughing hard. "You know you sounded just like those elcor shakespeare renditions right?"

Garrus sits up with a snap. "Not even close!" he says defensively, but with a large grin.

They both get up and walk over, picking up their clothes and winding down.

Shepard picks up her shoes with her fingers and walks up to Garrus as he snaps his boots in place.

"Forgive me?" Jasmin asks quietly, looking in his eyes.

"For what?" he questions, stopping halfway from putting on his visor.

"Well...I know you needed to release some stress. You were getting quite...how do I say... "quick to anger" she says smirking. "So I kinda pushed you a little more than I should have."

"Uh...ya...about that." Garrus sighs and slouches a little in embarrassment. "_I'm_ sorry I caused so many problems. I know better than to wait that long to come down here and use up some of my pent-up energy. It's a turian thing...you know"

"Huh. You know, I haven't heard of that till today."

"You didn't? I would have thought you'd have exausted the "turian" search already" he chuckles.

"Nope. You're the only turian that I've ever made friends with. Also, I learned my lesson on doing random searches on the extranet for "Turian daily life and culture."

"Do I dare ask why?" he cringes, preparing himself for the worst.

"Out of the one billion plus search results, over seventy-five percent of them were sexually related. Talk about awkward. So the long and short: seeing the sexually pleasing intercourse angles for turians isn't my idea of research."

"Besides, I don't want to get caught with that shit on my omnitool. People might get ideas." she says wagging her eyebrows.

"Well, I can understand the awkward "data" that came up on your search. The "sensative" material wouldn't be appropriate for an upstanding human female to be found with" Garrus drawls with increasing sarcasm.

"Good thing I'm not an upstanding human female." she says, playfully swinging around and saucily swaying her hips in the direction of the elevator.

Shepard stops and turns around. "See ya later..." she rakes her eyes from his toes to his fringe "...big guy. Thanks for the tossing around."

"Hah! I gave you more than a "Tossing" you little chit! Come back here and I'll give you a proper beating!" Garrus yells at her in a challenge.

"Not a chance Bucko! You've been had. Bow down to the champ!" she states with a flourished bow.

"Whatever.." he says turning around tossing his hand in the air non-chalantly.

"Loss is a nasty color on you G-rex. I can scrub it off with another substantial win if you'd like." Shepard pops a hip out and crosses her arms waiting for his answer.

Garrus stops mid-stride and turns his head halfway, glaring at her with one intense blue eye. He turns his whole body around and crouches, proceding to stalk Shepard.

"Oh no you don't" she says smiling nervously, dropping her shoes on the floor.

Garrus starts a deep, stacado growl like a tiger and picks up his pace.

Shepard moves backward slowly. "Garrus..no-dont!" with her last word he leaps the long distance and tackles her with a loud growl. Garrus pins her to the ground with their faces almost touching, his hot breath teasing her face as he growls again.

Shepard starts giggling a little, then erupts into full blown laughter. After a few seconds of her mirth he can't hold it in any longer and Garrus's deep, rich laughter dances with Shepards, filling up the cargo bay with there merriment. The vibrations of their laughter making them feel more close than they have in a long time. "Sorry slugger. If I was anyone else that would have scared me shitless, but personally I can't take that scary, predatory side of you seriously.

"Well you have to give me good points for effort right?" Garrus chuckles, smiling cheekily.

He looks at her, a large turian grin slowly blooms on his face.

"What? Why are you looking at me that way?"

"I have an impulse."

"Well you know how I feel about impulses. Acting on them is usually best."

"I was hoping you'd say that." he replies, smiling largely.

Hesistating only a moment he suddenly licks all the way up her face from chin to forehead like a dog would.

Shepard sputters in disgust and, using a few choice soft spots, flings Garrus off of her. She stands in a flurry staring in bewilderment at him. "WHAT THE HELL GARRUS!?" she exclaims with a high shriek. Her hair fell out of her hairtie and was lieing in soft waves, but the hair on the top of her head looked like a birds nest.

Garrus, not being able to help himself, fell on the floor and rolled around laughing.

Shepard put her hands on her hips and stared at the gleeful turian. "Does this amuse you pest?" she asks while her face switched on a scowl. Shepard taps her foot waiting for a response, but all she gets is more laughter.

Jasmin's face turns a bright red. "That's IT! I'm over you Garrus. You are an ASS!"

"Were you ever _in_ to me?" he says wagging his own eyebrows at her.

"Uuuuuugh!" Shepard exclaims, throwing up her hands in frustration and anger. She turns on her heel and stomps into the elevator.

Garrus rolls onto his feet and stands. He chuckles to himself and walks over to grab his visor, clipping it in place. "She's so much fun."

**...**

**Tee-hee! So much fun to write this story. Check ya lata peeps!**


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